Morning News: Midnight Madness, Cam Biedscheid, Cam Wright, Charles Mitchell And More

Cameron Biedscheid will not play for Notre Dame or Missouri next season.

It's time to get caught up on the last two weeks of college basketball news! Unfortunately, it's that time of year where there aren't too many positive stories coming out. It's mostly suspensions, dismissals, arrests, et cetera. But let's get to it:

College Basketball Starts This Week! (kinda) The NCAA has, over the last few years, changed the way Midnight Madness works. And so teams can begin to practice as early as Friday (two days from now). Don't expect any Midnight Madness events this week, though. Most schools will have theirs sometime in mid-to-late October, with ESPN's Midnight Madness coverage on Friday, October 17th.

I always put out a bracket projection the week of Midnight Madness, so I'll be using that ESPN date. Look for a new bracket right around October 20th.

Cameron Biedscheid Has Left Missouri It's not clear exactly why Biedscheid has left the team, but he will not play for them this season after transferring from Notre Dame. There's been quite a bit of turnover with Missouri lately, with the dismissals of Zach Price and Torren Jones to go with the NBA defections of Jabari Brown and Jordan Clarkson. Even with quite a few additions (including Baylor transfer Deuce Bello), Kim Anderson is down to just eleven scholarship players. And with two of those players suspended after an arrest, Anderson really just has nine players to work with at the moment.

It's going to be an uphill battle for Missouri just to get to the NIT next season, honestly.

Pitt's Cam Wright Out Injured A broken foot will sideline Cam Wright until mid-December, most likely. That will have him out for their trip to the Maui Invitational, and also their road trip to Indiana as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. Wright's not the greatest offensive player, but he's a strong defender and athlete and he started every single game for Pitt last season.

A full strength Pittsburgh has a chance to be a Top 25 team next season, but in a very deep ACC, Pitt could find themselves in some bubble trouble if they fail to collect a quality non-conference win or two. And if they collect those wins, they'll have done it without one of their starters.

Charles Mitchell Will Be Eligible For Georgia Tech The 6'8" rebounding monster transferred in from Maryland over the offseason. After losing three of the top four players off a team that went 16-17 last season, the Yellow Jackets were going to need a bunch of roster additions to have any chance to get to the postseason. Mitchell doesn't get them there by himself, but he's certainly a big help.

Oregon Removes JaQuan Lyle From Their Roster Oregon hasn't announced precisely what the academic issue is, but blue chip recruit JaQuan Lyle is not cleared academically to start the year at Oregon, which has put his entire freshman season into doubt. With the graduation of Johnathan Loyd, Lyle was expected to immediately step in as the new point guard. In my most recent bracket projection I had Oregon as the last at-large team in the field. Unless Lyle rejoins the team in the next couple of weeks, it's basically a certainty that the Ducks will drop out of my next bracket projection.

Jon Octeus Denied Admission At UCLA The Colorado State transfer was expected to step right in and start at point guard for the Bruins. While point guard was UCLA's biggest need this past offseason, I don't think this is going to be a significant blow for them. For one thing, they're stacked with talent at every other position. For another, I'm not sure it's a significant drop-off to Bryce Alford, who was really good as a freshman this past season. So even without Octeus, UCLA should still get back to the NCAA Tournament next season.