Wednesday Morning Dump

- Dan Wolken delivers today's must-read article. Wolken explains how Jelan Kendrick took a huge step in gaining his teams respect as well as growing as a person. I'm really pulling for this kid to get his issues under control. At the very least, it would make for a terrific story.

- Oh Thank God! One of my favorite hoops season mainstays is back: Pat Forde's Weekly Minutes.

- Today is fall signing day for college seniors. Here is a good article from Scout.com on the importance of landing local recruits. Perhaps even more interesting, however, is the sidebar in this link, which pretty much gets you all the information you need about signing day.

- One of the guys that won't be signing today (he's actually signing Friday now) is Arkansas commit Ky Madden, whose recruitment has been a strange one.

- Jay Bilas answers 10 burning questions about the new hoops season (But if you ain't on the inside, you don't get the answers. Unless you are Cam Newton. Then you will probably copy a friend's account info and claim it as your own.)

- Adam Zagoria with a good read on Rutgers transfer and current Creighton Bluejay Gregory Echinique.

- Jeff Eisenberg landed a Q-and-A with the guy making the Jeremy Tyler documentary. What's interesting is that this project was in the works since Tyler was in 9th, meaning that his decision to go pro after his junior season was pure, unadulterated, dumb luck for the filmmaker. While we're here, Basketball Prospectus released their review of George Dohrmann's book about Demetrius Walker.

- Jason King is always a must-read. Here he is on UNC and UCLA trying to rebuild themselves.

- It appears as if Oregon State's Roberto Nelson, who redshirted as a freshman, will not be eligible to play until December. How bad were his academics that its taken him a year and a half to get eligible?

- Kentucky Sports Radio really doesn't like writers who disagree with anything done by the University. There are few writers out there that lay the lumber like Matt Jones.

- The father of Kentucky center Eloy Vargas died Tuesday morning in the Dominican Republic.

- A great read on the potential championship breakthrough for Mid-Major schools.

- The members of the 2006 George Mason squad that made the Final Four may never get rings or a banner, but they will be honored with custom bobblehead figures. That may actually be more awesome. I wish I had a bobble head of me.

- Mike Miller explains why Illinois will need to tighten-up the defense if they want to contend in the Big Ten.

- Missouri's expectations have risen thanks to a solid core of returning players, led by potential All-American Kim English, Justin Safford and Michael Dixon

- A good list of potential impact freshman in the America East Conference

- They are handing out banners for the Sweet Sixteen now?

- Kansas will be a very good team with or without Josh Selby.

- Syracuse avoids getting LeMoyne'd for the second year in a row, crushing the Dolphins 91-48. Speaking of exhibitions, this is supposedly a picture of Ferris State being robbed against Indiana. I'm not sure if it is fake or not. Oh, and Bruce Pearl made his team return at 5:30 am to watch the tape of their debacle against Indianapolis U.