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The Daily Wildcat

The Daily Wildcat

 

Parrom hoping to catch up after injuries

Tim Glass / Arizona Daily Wildcat

UA mens basketball played Augustina.
Tim Glass
Tim Glass / Arizona Daily Wildcat UA men’s basketball played Augustina.

When Arizona basketball forward Kevin Parrom entered the media room with teammates Derrick Williams and Solomon Hill after their exhibition 70-59 victory against Augustana College on Sunday, he probably expected questions about the team’s subpar showing.

Instead, Parrom was hit with more questions about his performance on concussion tests than his performance on the hardwood on Sunday.

Parrom suffered a concussion during preseason practices when he was hit with an elbow by teammate Kyle Fogg, which resulted in his head hitting the floor and him missing more than half of the team’s practices.

During the post-game press conference on Sunday, Parrom was constantly asked about his lack of playing time over the last year due to injury. At one point a reporter asked Parrom to tell him about the process of the concussion test. Parrom responded with, “”Are you serious?”” while grinning, appearing shocked and a little annoyed that so much attention was being paid to his injury.

Though Parrom may want everyone to move past his injury history, the reality is that since his arrival at Arizona, injuries have delayed his growth as a player.

During his freshman season, Parrom missed the first 10 games with a stress fracture in his left foot, then missed four games toward the end in the season with pain in the same foot.

“”One thing in coaching Kevin (Parrom) that’s evident, is when you miss as much time as he did last year, he’s not as far along as the other guys in his class,”” said Arizona head coach Sean Miller. “”He probably missed 60 or 70 practices last year and 10 so far this year.””

In Sunday’s game against Augustana College, Parrom’s lack of practice time showed as he turned the ball over four times in only 13 minutes of play.

“”I had a concussion two weeks ago and a week ago I started slowly getting back into practice, learning two positions,”” said Parrom after the game. “”I just wanted to come out today and do the best that I could.””

Parrom spent the off-season working on his body and doesn’t seem to be concerned with the fact that he has missed a lot time since coming to Arizona.

“”I’m a basketball player, I work out and play every day so it’s nothing new to me,”” he said. “”I just tried to work on my body and my jump shot in the off-season.””

Parrom has a reputation as a hardnosed player that isn’t afraid to commit a hard foul. He solidified that reputation when he committed a hard foul on Arizona State’s Ty Abbott on a breakaway, spurring the “”No Easy Buckets”” slogan he made popular amongst fans after a Twitter post.

Parrom has since said he wants to move on from the slogan because it was the past and was heading in a negative direction.

“”I mean, I still want to be a tough player, but I think it was just going into a negative aspect, coming into the games as a boxer,”” said Parrom during media day. “”I still want to be a defensive-minded player.””

Parrom is healthy now, as he heads into the season opener, but a preseason concussion raises the question of whether he’s an injury-prone player due to his aggressive play.

“”I hope that it’s isolated, concussions aren’t something you see a lot in basketball. It’s just his head hit the floor, it could have happened to anybody,”” Miller said. “”He is a physical player but I’m hoping he can have a good streak of health here.””

Though Parrom wants to move past the discussion of his injuries and the “”No Easy Buckets”” slogan, just like his development as a player, it will take some time.

“”I would say Kevin (Parrom) is a work in progress.”” Miller said. “”I’m hopeful in couple weeks he can show even more progress as he catches on.””

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