After fracturing a bone in his right foot against Washington on Saturday, Kevin Parrom will be out for three months and will undergo surgery in the next couple of weeks, said UA head men’s basketball coach Sean Miller.
The junior guard won’t return to the floor until May, which will force him out of Arizona’s individual workouts in April. Parrom won’t travel to Cal and Stanford this weekend due to the swelling in his foot.
Although Parrom is ineligible to redshirt this season because he’s played more than 30 percent of the games on UA’s schedule, Miller said Arizona will petition for the 22-year-old to receive an extra year of eligibility.
Although Miller hasn’t yet talked to UA compliance director Bill Morgan, he said he feels that with Parrom’s hardships and good academic standing, along with the 14 games he missed his freshman season, Parrom “can be a candidate for that fifth year.”
“I think just to represent Kevin and his family in the right proper terms, that’s something that we’ll try to help him get,” Miller said.
Miller and Arizona spokesman Rich Paige confirmed that the process wouldn’t begin until this summer at the earliest. A final decision may not be reached until the end of next season.
Regardless of when the decision is made, Miller and Parrom’s teammates said they feel they owe it to their junior forward to try and win him a fifth year of eligibility.
That task won’t be easy, however, as defying the NCAA’s redshirt rules is almost unprecedented. Even though Arizona really only had the Parrom of old for four games this season, as Miller said, the 30 percent rule is fairly set in stone.
Even with the 14 contests Parrom missed as a freshman, he still played nearly 50 percent of the regular season games that season.
But with Parrom it’s not all about the games he’s missed, but rather the loss of his mother and grandmother, along with the Sept. 24, 2011, shooting injury he suffered while visiting his home in New York City.
Parrom has stayed positive in the public, constantly tweeting to his fans not to worry about him, he’ll be fine and ready for next year. But Miller made it clear that those 140 characters aren’t how Parrom’s feeling behind closed doors. Few athletes, or people for that matter, have gone through what Parrom’s gone through in such a short period of time.
“He’s had immense struggles, like any young person who would deal with just a single episode of their life,” Miller said. “When you have the complete circumstances that have affected Kevin, it’s hard to believe. A family generally doesn’t go through that, let alone one person at the age of 22 years old.”
