I'd love to get Brown back for the Sweet 16/Elite 8. Ngongba put up some numbers during the ACC tournament, but it was clear that our defense falls off without him. Yeah he can block some shots, and he boxes out better than Maliq does, but the numbers say our defense is much worse with him. I know at one point in the UL game, we were -14 with Big Pat on the floor.
Jon has tried hiding him in a zone, but then we become a zone team and not an elite man to man team. He is really slow at hedging out and then getting all the way back into the paint. But he's a freshman who didn't play last year in HS due to injury, so this is sorta expected. He has amazing post moves offensively, so when he does play, he needs to score to be a net positive.
Alabama (if we see them) is the game we will REALLY need Brown. Just like UNC, they want to spread the floor and have a big switch out onto Sears, it's literally all they do. Brown could turn the water off against them and completely shut them down, he was made for a game like this.