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South Carolina down another starter for Saturday's matchup with Auburn

imageby:Jack Veltri•about 8 hours•

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Jamarii Thomas (Jackson Randall/GamecockCentral)

After losing Myles Stute for the foreseeable future due to a blood clot, South Carolina will be down another key starter in its next game.

With the Gamecocks set to face No. 2 Auburn on Saturday, starting guard Jamarii Thomas won’t be available to play. The Norfolk State transfer is listed as out in Friday’s SEC student-athlete availability report. In fact, he won’t be available for a short while as SEC play rolls on. He’s expected to miss 3-4 weeks with a right knee sprain sustained in practice, the team announced on Friday.

In his first season with the team, Thomas is averaging 12.3 points, 3.2 rebounds and 3.3 assists on 39.3 percent shooting from the field. He’s started in all 15 of South Carolina’s games so far this year.

In addition to the Thomas news, sixth-year forward Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk is listed as probable for Saturday’s game.

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Now without two starters, other players coming off the bench should see a continuous increase in their usage.

Jordan Butler saw a little increase in his minutes, playing 11 against Alabama on Wednesday. Morris Ugusuk, who usually plays a decent amount coming off the bench, was out there for 23 minutes but racked up more personal fouls than points. But the one player who hadn’t played much at all who saw a significant increase in game action was Arden Conyers.

Before the Alabama game, Conyers had only played a combined 16 minutes in five games this season, but then he saw 19 minutes of floor time against the Crimson Tide. The redshirt freshman guard went for two points on 1-of-6 shooting and 0-for-3 from behind the arc.

As for the Tigers, they are fully healthy and don’t have any players listed on the injury report. Auburn comes into this game with a chance to move up to the top spot in the AP Poll as it currently sits at 14-1 (2-0 SEC) on the season.

During the offseason, the SEC approved a new policy that mandates availability reports for conference games. The reports will be required for football, men’s and women’s basketball, and baseball. For football, teams submit reports on Wednesday and then update them each day until a final report 90 minutes before game time. For basketball and baseball, reports will be submitted the evening before a game and then updated on game day.

The availability reports will use designations such as “available,” “probable,” “questionable,” “doubtful,” and “out” to describe how likely it is that a particular player will suit up for the next conference game. On game day, those designations will shift to “out” or “game-time decision.” The reports model professional sports leagues’ injury reports.

South Carolina and Auburn will tip-off at 1 p.m. from Colonial Life Arena on Saturday afternoon. The game can be viewed on SEC Network.

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