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The Morning Mix

Did you feel it yesterday? Wednesday had that crisp mid-November buzz to it. Yesterday felt like a real, true, college hoops day. There were media days held, tv specials were aired and the news cycle was in hyper drive.

Time to hit the links.

- The Kentucky Wildcats were the big winners on Wednesday. John Calipari was in Bristol, CT going through the ESPN “Car Wash” and the ESPN All-Access special on Kentucky debuted last night. Unfortunately, coach Calipari struggled to make his free throws. But Calipari did state that Nerlens Noel is eligible to play this season. On top of that, highly touted former-Indiana target Marcus Lee committed to Kentucky on Wednesday afternoon. Oh did I mention that the facilities connected to Rupp Arena got a facelift? Yeah, Kentucky owned Wednesday

- Your #ReadoftheDay comes from Mike Lopresti of The USA Today. He details the triumvirate that he expects to dominate the polls the entire season

- The Big East Conference held their media day yesterday, so strap in for a bunch of notes: Jim Boeheim and Rick Pitino exchanged some rather colorful, umm “pleasantries”. Vince Brazeau, the former NBA Vice President of Basketball Operations, has been hired by the Big East to replace Dave Gavvitt as Senior Associate Commissioner for Men’s Basketball. The conference also reached a new multiyear extension with Madison Square Garden in order to keep the Big East Tournament in New York City

- Of course there was much discussion about Syracuse’s impending departure to the ACC, and specifically, the last Big East game ever played by the Orange, against their hated rivals Georgetown

- Louisville was the prohibitive preseason favorite to win the Big East conference this season. The Cardinals have the returning talent, depth and experience needed in order to make a return trip to the Final Four

- Ben Howland wants his team to run the floor this year. But with the status of Kyle Anderson and Shabazz Muhammad still undetermined, the Bruins might not be able to run

- Miami big-man Reggie Johnson has been busting his tail this off-season in order to shed some excess weight. The center is currently tipping the scales around 290 pounds, which is significantly less than what he weighted 12 months ago

- A bizarre paperwork oversight will force Xavier’s Isaiah Philmore to miss the Musketeers first three games

- La Salle finds themselves wedged squarely in the middle of an extremely deep Atlantic-10 Conference this season. College Chalk Talk explains what the Explorers can expect from sophomore rising star Jerrell Wright

- The Colonials of Robert Morris have had a very strong last half-decade in the NEC, but with senior team leader and leading scorer Velton Jones set to graduate in May, it will be interesting to see what direction the program heads in

- A nice video recap of Maryland’s Midnight Madness event last Friday

- You’d be very intrigued to see which programs have amassed all-time records below .500 (I’m looking at you Clemson and Ole Miss)

- Minnesota Lynx (Yup, I’m going WNBA on all y’all) head coach Cheryl Reeve summoned her inner-Bobby Knight during last night’s WNBA Championship game. Yes, I am telling you to click this link and voluntarily watch a WNBA video

Troy Machir is the managing editor of the college basketball website Ballin’ is a Habit. You can find him on twitter @TroyMachir.