Today Brian Hamilton was on BYUSN and said that he didn’t think the ABBA (Alex Barcello and Brandon Averette) backcourt would work well defensively without the full court press. This because they will get caught switching onto larger wings that can overpower them or shoot over them. But if you press they can’t organize the switching as well.

If Pope wants to play both these guys together it and wants to press to do it, it begs the question- who plays in the front court alongside these guys in a full court press. Many expect Haarms to be a PF next to Harward but I have a hard time seeing that work with a full court press. Seems like when the press is broken you don’t want Haarms to be playing in space like a PF would because his straight line speed is limited. Perhaps they’ll try the ABBA backcourt without the press.

On another similar related note a popular projection for the starting lineup is Averette-Barcello-Harding-Haarms-Harward but when I think about that lineup, there’s not much defensive versatility despite all five being solid-very good defenders.