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Former South Carolina basketball forward Rolando Howell passes away at 34

The Columbia product helped the Gamecocks to their most recent NCAA Tournament appearance in 2004.

Grant Halverson/Getty Images

The South Carolina Gamecocks basketball community has lost one of the cornerstones of the early 2000s. Rolando Howell, a forward who helped lead the Gamecocks to the NCAA Tournament in 2004, passed away at just 34 years old.

Howell suffered an injury to his C5 vertebrae in mid-May after a fall caused by a seizure, leaving him paralyzed. He would later begin undergoing treatment and rehab in Charlotte. However, it appears that complications from the injury eventually led to his death, although details aren't immediately available.

Howell averaged 9.5 points per game and 5.8 rebounds per game in a career that spanned from 2001-2004. In his senior season, he averaged nine points and 5.4 rebounds an outing as the Gamecocks earned an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. However, a wrist injury held him out of the first round matchup against John Calipari's seventh-seeded Memphis Tigers, which Carolina lost by a count of 59-43.

The Garnet and Black Attack staff joins the Gamecock community in remembering Howell and send condolences to his wife, Reanna, and their family.