How Lamont Paris turned South Carolina from an afterthought to a event staff

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Following South Carolina’s 75-60 win over Vanderbilt on Feb. 10, a big group of Gamecocks followers at Colonial Life Area refused to budge, at the same time as a annoyed safety guard urged the staff’s supporters to exit the power. Huddled alongside the baseline of the courtroom, shoulder-to-shoulder close to the doorway of the house staff’s tunnel, they lingered as a result of they needed an image with head coach Lamont Paris, a nationwide coach of the yr contender, and his gamers, who’ve orchestrated one of many faculty basketball season’s most spectacular turnarounds.

“They did not wait round like this after video games final season,” the safety guard famous.

A yr in the past, South Carolina performed most of its video games in entrance of a half-empty residence area en path to an 11-21 report in Paris’ first season as head coach. This yr, the No. 20 Gamecocks, who will play at Ole Miss on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET on the SEC Community, are legit contenders within the SEC race and one of many largest surprises in males’s faculty basketball.

Paris’ staff is 21-5 and sits third within the SEC standings, simply 1.5 video games behind convention chief Alabama. And now, there aren’t simply extra followers within the stands for residence video games, they’re displaying up in a selected form of uniform: quarter-zip sweatshirts, Paris’ most popular sideline apparel. “The quarter zip, it is such a flexible piece of clothes,” Paris stated.

Picked to complete final within the SEC within the league’s preseason ballot, South Carolina reached the No. 11 spot within the Related Press Prime 25 ballot final week, its highest rating for the reason that 1997-98 season, following a seven-game profitable streak. Its résumé consists of wins over Kentucky and Tennessee, and ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has the Gamecocks firmly positioned within the NCAA event area as a 7-seed in his newest Bracketology.

“​​I imply, shoot, [the voters in the preseason poll] simply principally stated, ‘You are the worst gamers. You are the worst staff. You ain’t going to be good,'” stated Meechie Johnson, a junior guard who’s averaging 13.8 factors per sport. “That is how we checked out it. And, clearly, we simply did not assume like that about ourselves.”

Paris did not assume that approach about his staff, both. He knew about all of the strikes he made within the offseason so as to add the precise items and construct a correct tradition for this yr’s group. And now, all people can see that these strikes have modified this system’s fortunes. The addition of Wofford switch B.J. Mack (13.8 PPG) upgraded South Carolina’s offensive capabilities within the paint. Paris additionally used the portal to grow old — South Carolina had one of many youngest Energy 5 groups a yr in the past — with veteran gamers who’ve helped this staff go from a sub-200 rating in defensive effectivity in 2022-23 to a top-60 spot this season. These enhancements helped South Carolina go from a 21-loss season only a yr in the past to a 21-win season at this time.

“You choose my staff final?” Paris stated in regards to the SEC preseason ballot. “Final is what you are going to say? Yeah? OK. Come on. Carry it. That mindset has transferred over to a whole lot of our gamers.”

This is not to say that every part this season has gone easily — the staff has misplaced its previous two video games, considered one of which was a 40-point blowout at Auburn on Valentine’s Day.

However Paris feels most comfy amid adversity.

As an 11-year-old in Findlay, Ohio, he instructed these round him that he’d be the primary particular person in his household to attend faculty. Paris’ dad and mom all the time taught their youngsters to carry their heads excessive, even when the percentages had been towards them — and typically they had been. Paris stated he remembers going via the checkout line on the native grocery retailer and paying with meals stamps. However he by no means felt ashamed.

“You needed to carry up the tray, pull out the orange cash, and all people’s like, ‘Ah, individuals with meals stamps,'” Paris stated. “That did not have an effect on us. It did not make us really feel like we had been any worse.”

After he graduated in 1996 from the Faculty of Wooster, the place he was a two-time captain of the boys’s basketball staff, he determined to pursue a profession in teaching — first as an assistant at Wooster, after which at 4 different colleges over the course of 20 years.

He made simply $10,000 and slept on a mattress on the concrete ground of a basement whereas at Indiana College of Pennsylvania. However he saved working his approach into higher jobs. After a seven-year stint as an assistant at Wisconsin, he lastly received his first head-coaching alternative in 2017 at Chattanooga, which received 10 video games in his first season. In 2022, he led the Mocs to the NCAA event, getting the eye of South Carolina, which employed him to interchange Frank Martin.

To search out the blueprint for constructing a champion at South Carolina, Paris solely needed to stroll down the corridor to girls’s basketball coach Daybreak Staley’s workplace. South Carolina males’s basketball goals to rebuild and safe a spot among the many sport’s greatest. In girls’s basketball, Staley — who took over an unremarkable program in 2008 and turned it right into a perennial contender, profitable the 2017 and 2022 nationwide championships — has completed that and extra. Throughout No. 1 South Carolina’s win over UConn earlier this month, a sellout crowd, which included Paris, danced to a DJ’s playlist because the staff added one other victory to its unblemished report.

Onward. #Gamecocks🐔🏀 // #ForeverToThee pic.twitter.com/cm6aE35fC9

— Gamecock Males’s Basketball (@GamecockMBB) February 19, 2024

Paris referred to as Staley an inspiration who made him really feel like he belonged when she pulled him onstage throughout her staff’s 2022 nationwide title parade solely days after he had been employed.

“I believe [Paris] is a good coach, an ideal X’s and O’s coach,” Staley stated. “I believe he is an ideal tradition coach. He is received the precise guys representing him. The sky is the restrict for this program. He simply wanted an opportunity.”

Paris stated the important thing to the staff’s turnaround has been the tradition inside the program. Yeah, the phrase “tradition” is a cliché amongst coaches, however to him, it is actual. After a latest follow, gamers sat on the bench and laughed collectively as an alternative of going residence. That lighthearted vibe existed even earlier than the season began. A preseason journey to the Bahamas enhanced the staff’s chemistry and helped strengthen the concept this group may exceed expectations. And the great vibes have not simply been restricted to basketball-related journeys and actions.

“We hang around with one another quite a bit,” stated Minnesota switch Ta’Lon Cooper, a South Carolina native who’s averaging 9.7 PPG and making 44% of his pictures from 3-point vary. “We go to the ladies’s video games. We simply vibe with one another. I imply, I attempted to take a few them roller-skating. They do not wish to roller-skate. They tried. I am going to give them that. However we’ll play video video games collectively. They’re simply nice dudes, man.”

Earlier than his staff’s matchup towards Vanderbilt earlier this month, Paris addressed his gamers within the locker room and made a requirement. “Assist as you may,” he instructed his staff. “No matter you are referred to as upon to do. That is what our energy is.”

Paris, who retains the 2 chairs he used on the sideline throughout Wisconsin’s Remaining 4 runs in 2014 and 2015 in his workplace in Columbia, preaches two issues: the worth of unity and dedication. With the latter high quality, this South Carolina group took its rating within the league’s preseason ballot as an insult and determined to embarrass its critics.

“Why not us?” Cooper stated. “A whole lot of us got here right here to construct this program. A whole lot of us are from right here. We simply need to construct this program to the place, from right here on out, that is what South Carolina males’s basketball is about.”

After a first-half lull, South Carolina outscored Vanderbilt 47-28 within the second half of that aforementioned victory. Up to now, it was the height of the season.

Paris tried to shake as many palms as he may following his native radio present after the Vanderbilt victory. There have been supporters of all ages who needed selfies. However a boy within the entrance row, who leaned towards the yellow safety rope that lined the courtroom, conveyed the optimism of a fan base that has witnessed this system’s fast development.

“Coach Paris!” the boy yelled because the 49-year-old turned towards him. “You’ve got modified South Carolina males’s basketball!”

However Paris resists the credit score.

“I did not rating some extent all season, guys,” he stated. “They’ll attempt to inform me that I did one thing right here. My gamers are on the market doing it. Let’s not overlook that.”