GG Jackson sends emotional goodbye to Hayden Brown

Hayden Brown was the heart and soul of the 2023 South Carolina Gamecocks. A hometown kid that spent five seasons at The Citadel, Brown transferred to USC for his final year of eligibility and made quite the impression on some of his teammates.

That includes freshman GG Jackson, who led the Gamecocks in scoring this season.

“I want to thank Hayden as well. I never had a big brother in my life, I always had a big sister annoying me,” Jackson said after losing to Ole Miss in the SEC Tournament. “But to have someone that can lead that way on a team, on a Power Five team, on an SEC team, the best conference in college basketball, says a lot about the kind of player he is. He always has this one quote that we would say a lot: the river’s going to keep flowing.”

The feeling is mutual, as Brown reciprocated the respect Jackson showed him. Even though Brown won’t be playing college basketball for the first time since 2017, the lessons he’s taught his teammates as an on-court coach won’t be soon forgotten.

 “I wanted to thank him just for the teammate that he’s been. There’s been some ups and downs, but he’s just been a teammate. I was just so thankful to have had this year with him,” Brown said. “I hope that I’ve encouraged him or taught him or exemplified something to him. But it just means a whole lot. This game means a whole lot to me. My teammates mean a whole lot to me. The coaching staff means a whole lot to me.”

The Gamecocks will head into the 2023 offseason looking to build on the 21-loss season they suffered during Lamont Paris’s first season as headman. Paris said after the SEC Tournament loss that this season searved as the “ground floor” for the program that he wants to build in Columbia, and Brown’s influence on Jackson, and the rest of the team, was a vital part of that foundation.