Hayden Brown commits to Gamecocks
SPORTS TALK / April 23, 2022
New USC basketball coach Lamont Paris Saturday landed his second transfer from the portal in 6-5 Hayden Brown, a former Citadel standout who is moving on as a grad transfer. Brown prepped at Byrnes. He took official visits to USC, Georgia Tech and Loyola of Chicago.Brown said following his official visit to USC earlier this month that he saw pretty much everything he was looking for in a new basketball home.
“Comparatively looking at what I’m coming from, it’s definitely a nice area and facility,” Brown said. “They have plentiful amount of resources that I would have access to, so it was good.”
Brown and Paris crossed paths many times during their years in the Southern Conference. In fact, Brown had one of the best games of his career against Paris when he was at UT-Chattanooga. Brown said earlier in the month having played against Paris’s teams so much has given him a good feel what it will be like to play for him.”
“I think it’s a good fit,” Brown said. “You look as far back as his Wisconsin team he was a part of when they went to the Final Four, you look at a player like Nigel Hayes who was undersized for his position but was versatile and able to stretch the floor and get and exploit mismatches. And I a hundred percent see myself doing that. That’s exactly how he would use me. I’m very familiar with his play style.”
Brown’s last game with The Citadel came against Paris and UTC in the Southern Conference Tournament in March. For his career against UTC, Brown averaged 10.3 points and 6.4 rebounds per game. Two seasons ago he had one game against the Mocs of 37 points and 13 rebounds.
Brown played in 111 games at The Citadel and finished with career averages of 12.6 points and 6.7 rebounds per game. This season he averaged 18.8 points and 9.5 rebounds per game. For his career he shot 50% from the floor, 29% from three and 67% from the line.
Brown joins 6-5 Troy Boynton as transfers in the 2022 USC class which now numbers four.
