Interesting that Coach Lavin thinks the 3rd leading freshman scorer in the country (and BEST scoring major conference frosh) is set to have a BREAKOUT sophomore year.
That was Rothstein, not Lavin.
My bad - the first 3 posts were "Lavin says" - didn't notice the 4th was different - Rothsteins take.
Now that I know - a comment on one of Rothstein's other takes:
“@JonRothstein: Don't be surprised to see a lot of Harrison, Greene, + Branch together in 3G sets. Lavin used it at UCLA. Likens it to 2005 Illinois team.”
It should be noted that the 3 guard Coach Lavin used at UCLA was mainly Baron Davis, Earl Watson and Toby Bailey in 1998. And Toby was an 18 pt, 6 reb, 4 assist guy that year. Other 3 "guard" rotations featured Rico Hines, and Billy Knight as the 3rd "guard" - both of whom started their Bruin careers as Forwards, and 6'4 212 Ray Young. I can't really remember any instance of Coach Lavin running 3 guards who were all 6'3 or smaller. The last two years, the starting PG was 6'6 210 Ced Bozeman - who fairly regularly defended the 3 (in fact he was the starting SF his senior year when UCLA played Florida for the National Championship). So it's not QUITE the same thing. You can call it 3 guard, or you can call it 1 guard and 2 wings.
No disrespect to Rothstein, but I'd REALLY be surprised to see "a LOT of Harrison/Greene/Branch". Given the athletic ability, speed, quickness and incredible defensive potential of Amir and Sir Dom at the three (can't comment on the necommers at the 3 yet) just can't see the advantage of a 3rd guard over a true forward at the 3 spot. Phil would have to demonstrate MONSTER improvement in his shooting (up from 36% FG, 28% 3s) to justify being in with Branch and D'lo.