Clemson junior star center PJ Hall is recovering from a knee injury he suffered over the summer while simultaneously healing from foot surgery he had in the spring.
In his postgame press conference following the Tigers’ 72-41 win over Loyola Maryland on Monday, head coach Brad Brownell spoke about Hall’s performance.
“You know, PJ is still finding his way. Clearly tonight he just didn’t look as comfortable,” Brownell said.
Brownell continued on to further discuss Hall’s court discomfort by saying, “It’s just coming back. It’s really hard. Our last visuals of him were playing unbelievable at the end of the season, and his expectations are really high. I think it’s hard on him emotionally. I think he wants to play so well, and at times, he’s rushing himself a little bit. He’s made some errors just in terms of understanding what we’re trying to do and remembering some plays a couple times. He kind of snaps out of it sometimes, but he doesn’t always, and he just doesn’t have as many reps.
“It’s normal, but I can tell he’s a little frustrated. Tonight, he was more frustrated than he’s been, but he has a lot of other things going on in his world. Some other things off the court that have been challenging for him and his family. We just have to be patient. He’s a really good player. He’s a great person, a great kid. He’ll snap out of it.”
Hall played 13 minutes on Monday night in Littlejohn Coliseum, where he had four points, one block and one rebound.
Brownell shared that Hall’s return journey consists of, “He just needs to play right, and we just have to keep practicing with him every day and get some game reps, and he’s just going to get better as we go. But I don’t know when it’s going to be that he looks like the guy he was last year, and I’ve said it’s going to take him a couple months. All the guy did was rehab for most of the offseason until a couple weeks to go, so it shouldn’t be any shock he is where he is right now. He’s done really well in terms of making some plays around the basket and making some shots in some of those other games. He just didn’t finish very well tonight.”
