Lamont Paris discusses Hayden Brown’s absence, impact on South Carolina

South Carolina suffered another lopsided loss last week against Texas A&M as the Aggies rolled to a 94-53 victory Jan. 14. The Gamecocks were without Hayden Brown due to injury in that game, and Lamont Paris was quick to joke about how much they missed him.

“I mean, he’s averaging 41 [points] a game,” Paris said. “So we would’ve tied it up, had he played, I feel like.”

In all seriousness, Brown has been a key player for South Carolina after arriving from The Citadel. He averages 11.5 points and 5.1 rebounds per game for the Gamecocks, but couldn’t go against Texas A&M due to a thigh injury.

However, in addition to his stats, Paris said Brown makes a big impact beyond the box score. With that in mind, he also could’ve provided a boost from a statistical standpoint, as well.

“It’s about who we were as a team in his absence in a game like this,” Paris said. “Would there have been more fight? Rather than 10 out of those 16 offensive rebounds, would that number have been six because he would’ve blocked out a little bit more aggressively and drawn a couple fouls more? Would we have been in the bonus a little bit earlier? Would we have felt better about ourselves because of it? He’s also a good cutter. With what they were doing offensively, we wanted to get some cuts from the back side and create some situations.

“There’s no doubt that it affected us, him not being there, in a negative way and a game like this specifically. It wouldn’t have counted for all those points, but we would have potentially been in a completely different place had he played.”

Paris couldn’t provide a timeline for Brown’s return because of the nature of his injury. He suffered a thigh bruise during practice last week and Paris said it’s unclear how long he’ll be out.

It all depends on how he feels.

“I’m hopeful he’ll be back sooner rather than later,” Paris said. “I don’t know what it looks like. He’s made tremendous progress from the day that it first happened until today. He went through shootaround and wasn’t able to play, obviously, but had made some significant strides in terms of his progress. It’s tricky.

“Sometimes they take a little while, to be honest with you. I’ve had one in high school and sometimes, they take a little while. He’s working really hard at it and hopefully, he’ll be back sooner rather than later.