Lamont Paris over BJ McKie? That will take time to process, former Gamecocks say
Lamont Paris will have many things on his plate as he takes over the South Carolina men’s basketball team. One of those items will be to get former players on board with the hire.
Many former Gamecocks in recent days made their feelings known that USC Hall of Fame player BJ McKie was their choice to succeed Frank Martin as the school’s 33rd coach in program history.
McKie is the school’s all-time leading scorer, a member of the 1996-97 Southeastern Conference championship team and rising assistant coach at Wake Forest. McKie interviewed for the USC position but Paris, the head coach at Chattanooga, will be the head man for Gamecocks basketball program.
Paris led Chattanooga to a Southern Conference tournament championship this season and a near-upset of fourth-seeded Illinois in the NCAA tournament. Other candidates considered were Sean Miller, Dennis Gates and Matt McMahon, all three who took jobs elsewhere.
“It will take some time for all of us to get out of our feelings. I am only speaking from the players that I know that were disappointed,” former USC guard Aaron Lucas told The State on Tuesday. “At the end of the day, it is still the program. People are going to change, administrations are going to change. But at the end of the day, it is still the University of South Carolina. … Bottom line is, we are still with the program’s success.”
Lucas was one of several former Gamecock players to post their support for McKie on social media. Others included Larry Davis, Brandon Wallace and Carlos Powell. Melvin Watson told The State on Saturday he had his “fingers crossed” that his former backcourt mate at USC would be the Gamecocks’ next coach.
Jo Jo English also was in support of McKie and remembers coaching him at a basketball camp when McKie was just 8 years old. McKie went on to be a standout at Irmo High School and the 1995 S.C. Gatorade Player of the Year as a senior before his standout career with the Gamecocks. He is in his second season on head coach Steve Forbes’ staff at Wake Forest.
English watched other bigger-name programs like Duke, North Carolina, Georgetown, Michigan and Memphis recently give their former players a shot at being a head coach. He was hoping USC would do the same with McKie.
“Of course we are going to say, ‘Why not BJ?’ No knock on coach Paris, but us liking BJ is no knock and doesn’t mean we will not like the next coach coming in,” said English, who is the head boys coach at his high school alma mater Lower Richland. “The affection we have for BJ is more so the respect we have for what he has done over his career, not just as a player but as a coach. And being from home, you hope it would be like a Penny Hardaway at Memphis story or Juwan Howard at Michigan where they go and coach at their university.
“I’m not disappointed, and it is our first African American head coach in program history and we are going to do our best to support it. I know some former players are in their feelings a little bit. But you gotta put emotions to the side and (believe) the administration made the best choice for administration at this time.”
That might take longer for some players than others.
“Coach is going to be in a precarious situation that he is going to have to win people over as a whole versus coming into with a clean slate. He unfortunately has a tough task. BJ, in our mind, was the obvious choice, but it is still the program and we want it to be successful,” Lucas said. “And it is a historical moment (first Black head coach) as well. But we will have to adapt and change. That isn’t the first time we have been down this road.
“Hopefully, people will do their best to support coach Paris and his staff and hopefully he will do the things needed to be done to win people over, move forward and build his program.”
This story was originally published March 22, 2022 at 12:51 PM.
