1. The Musketeers are turning into the walking wounded after losing Jamel McLean to a broken eye socket for three to six weeks, the Associated Press writes.
2. In Pittsburgh, various injuries are giving some young Panthers a chance to get meaningful experience early in their careers, writes Chris Peak of PantherLair.com.
3. Notre Dame enters life without Luke Harangody with five starting seniors, and coach Mike Brey is sorting out their PT and rotation, writes Tim Prister of IrishIllustrated.com.
4. For players from coast to coast, the regular season gets under way in just a week — if you’re eligible. Yahoo Sports’ Jason King takes a look at whether super-frosh Josh Selby of Kansas and Enes Kanter of Kentucky will be among those players.
5. Georgia needs Trey Thompkins to have a big season if the Bulldogs want to compete in the tough SEC East, but Thompkins needs two to six weeks to recover from a dreaded high ankle sprain, writes Anthony Dasher at UGASports.com.
6. Nebraska big man Christopher Niemann will miss an unknown amount of time after having surgery on a knee that’s already been through two ACL tears, writes Robin Washut of HuskersIllustrated.com.
7. Reckless driving = two-game suspension, at least at Michigan State, where Korie Lucious will miss an exhibition game and the Spartans’ regular-season opener against Eastern Michigan, according to the Associated Press.

chris_chalktalk: How bad are the injuries at #Xavier? Doug Tifft, X Newswire editor, suffers a concussion drawing a charge during intramurals. Get well man!

CBBRumorCentral: Is Duke’s backcourt too full? http://es.pn/9yy9MW As blue-chippers roll to Cameron, will there be enough playing time to go around?

DStrick01: Am I the only one scared of squirrels??

Jared_Sully0: I wish I had Ray Allens Jump shot for one week. I’ll never shot a lay up. Haahahhaaha.

chrisbosh: Veteran’s Day is just around the corner, Pat Riley and I are taking time to honor these brave men and women & give b… http://say.ly/zFH4up

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Check out the highlights and post-game interviews from the Howard Homecoming celebrity game.

With the rise of statistical analysis in all sports — think Moneyball in baseball, John Hollinger’s ratings for NBA ballers — we’re joining the party. Because our methods are low-tech and time-consuming, we’re going to stick with ratings for just the major-conference teams. If you like what we’re doing, we’ll look to expand the ratings beyond the Power 6 conferences.

Look back Wednesday for the inaugural ratings and more explanation about what in the world we’re doing with this idea.

Rhode Island at Pittsburgh
UC-Irvine at Illinois
Navy at Texas
Seattle at Maryland

And of course, the NCAA sets off the fireworks for the official start of the regular season next Friday, with 138 games on the slate. Hallelujah!

With the midterm elections ending this past week, we witnessed a shift in political power in Washington as Republicans gained more clout. However, their real influence — and ability to do anything to help this country — remains unclear. But that’s not stopping every Democratic and Republican evangelist from going on TV and the radio to interpret the results based on entirely on what’s good for their party, the truth be damned.

In college basketball, we have plenty of politics to deal with: NCAA rules and regulations, high school recruiting, eligibility standards, agents looking for in-roads, teams scheming on others’ coaches, etc. It can get almost as messy and nasty as election campaign ads.

But for 40 minutes, players on the court and coaches on the sidelines can remove themselves from any drama and focus on one thing: winning. In the moment, nothing else matters except doing the best you can in hopes that that will be enough to delivery a victory.

It’s the joy of sports, and it’s a temporary escape from energy-sapping political fighting that generates lots of noise and not much satisfaction.