NCAA Basketball: 10 hot takes after 1st month of 2024-25 season

The season is officially a month old, and we have collectively learned some things about every team. In the month, we have seen huge upsets like North Florida over South Carolina, Elon over Notre Dame, and Charleston Southern over Notre Dame, just to name a few. There are also a lot of individuals who have separated themselves from the rest of the field in terms of the National Player of the Year race. There are clear-cut favorites now. The first month has also allowed us to see who looks like an NCAA tournament team and who looks like a fraud or just a flat-out bad team.

The best part about the first month at least for me is that I get to come up with 10 more hot takes about the first month of the season that may or may not come true. I did this exercise again after the first week of the season and some of those takes don’t look so hot anymore, but now look like they may become fact. You can find my first 10 hot takes here.

This is the second edition of the Hot Takes. It is okay to be reactionary to something and to let your crazy thoughts outweigh the normal, at least when it comes to basketball. I will give you 10 hot takes and a little background on why I arrived at the said conclusion. Some of these may come true and some may not they are after all hot takes that may be based on one game, one week, or one comment made by the coach or player. Let’s get into it.

Aidan Mahaney will get buried on the UConn bench

For those of you who don’t know, Mahaney was one of the most coveted transfers in the offseason after he transferred from Saint Mary’s. The point guard was one of the best players in the West Coast conference and was known a three-level scorer, good defender, and was a pick for WCC player of the year last season. This year has been a mess for Mahaney at UConn. He has not been scoring; he was exposed in a big way in the Maui Invitational, to the point where he didn’t play much in the final two games, and he looks like a much different player. UConn can ill afford to let Mahaney figure it out, so he will be buried on the bench to figure it out in practice or mop up time. This is trending that way already as Hassan Diarra has seen his minutes uptick.

This is the best Memphis Tigers team Penny Hardaway has ever had

Here is one that is entirely reactionary based on what the Tigers showed in Maui. Memphis has a lot of high-quality transfers and doesn’t have a lot of freshmen this year. That has helped with their overall depth and their experience. Memphis was mighty impressive in Maui. They play extremely hard and have three guards who defend and score. Tyrese Hunter, PJ Haggerty, and Colby Rogers are going to keep Memphis in every game they play. The Tigers have a rim protector in Mousa Cisse, a big man who can score in Dain Dainja and unbelievable depth. Memphis will show the championship game in Maui was no fluke.