Everything Ray Tanner said about the coaching search that landed Lamont Paris

Shortly after South Carolina’s press conference to introduce Lamont Paris as the new head basketball coach wrapped up Thursday at Colonial Life Arena wrapped up, Gamecocks athletic director Ray Tanner spoke at length with local media about the search and hiring process. Here’s a full transcript of those comments.

On the search

“I’m tremendously excited. It was a great search. And as I mentioned earlier, Chance (Miller) was with me. We had a plan. We had a process and once we got underway, we stuck to it. We went through it, and we ended up with a guy that we expect to be successful here. I know that, although I don’t see a lot of stuff, some things were thrown out, some names were thrown out. In this day and age, you guys are more accurate than maybe you were many years ago. On some things. Not everything. But a lot of that’s out there. But a lot of good coaches’ names. I’ll tell you this, the coaches that I talked to during this process, first class, enjoyable experience and nothing at all where there’s an issue. I’m excited about Lamont and what he’ll bring to this program.”

What sold him on Lamont Paris

“I think today, I was speaking to someone, and I said, I’m not going to draw a comparison to Shane Beamer. But when I started looking, you know, a while ago at, he started, where he’s been and the process, and then being at Wisconsin, being at Akron and getting to where he is at Chattanooga. It just kind of gave me that opportunity to say that, okay, he’s had to go to a program that needed some work when he got there. And he proceeded to make it happen. I think he was maybe 62 and 30-something his last three years. And I know that there was another school that was ahead of us in the process, and I thought he could possibly come off the board. But he didn’t. And he was still playing, of course as I said earlier, when he got beat, that was the opportunity to get in person. That’s what happened. He did tell the truth. Chance was talking to him about getting over here and I was talking to Chance about going to pick him up. And an hour later, Chance says, ‘He’s driving.’ And I thought, well, maybe we should intercept him. Then I’m thinking, nah, it’s OK. He got here Saturday night.”

If a moment stuck out in the interview process

“As you can tell, he’s a person that you can tell, he is gonna laugh a little bit and have a good time. He’s gonna work extremely hard. But during our conversation, he and I were talking, and I said, my expectations are playing postseason. Period. Do I think we should do it every year? We’d like to, but coach Staley has a dynasty. And it’s it’s not easy for other sports to do what she’s done. There’s some that have some great success, but the expectations are getting to the postseason with our basketball program on a regular basis. I just want to be clear, and he said to me, which I knew already, he said, I have a habit of being in the postseason. And, he’s only been a head coach for a short period of time, but the track that he came from, I think what I said up there, he’s been in nine of those and played 27, 26 games.”

How much did head coach experience matter

“I talked to an assistant. There were a few guys that y’all weren’t aware that I was talking to, but I thought that it was important. You know, this is the Southeastern Conference this year, the best conference in the country. There was a lot of turnover in the league. And I think, sitting in the chair, in his case for five years, with the background that he had, I thought it was an invaluable opportunity and it was important, but again, there was an assistant coach that did speak with. More than one actually”

On national criticism of the search calling it a ‘disjointed mess’

“Somebody sent that to me last night. It’s completely inaccurate. I am pretty sure I know where the comment came from, and who said it and why he said. It is because the choice that he had to be the coach here wasn’t the person who got the job. So I’m well aware of that. And that’s just part of it. You have to take some of that, but I can tell you, and I would be the first to tell you that, we did this, we did that. We were on the go. We were on the move. And we stuck to our process. And we ended up in a great place. I didn’t appreciate the comment. That’s part of what you have to deal with. I understand that, and it’s not perfect, but it’s OK.”

On Paris’ salary compared to the rest of the SEC

“Well, it’s comparable in the marketplace. And that’s one of those things that I was well aware of what had transpired in the last few days, and I felt like we put him in a good place with an opportunity to grow, to get better. So it’s a really good contract to start with, and I hope that he puts us in a position that it has to be bigger in the years to come.”

On the elements supporting Paris in the job

“Well, I think, you know, once people get to know him, and he has a tremendous personality. He likes being with people and he embraces community. There’s no doubt about that. I believe they ill embrace him. I know that he and Dawn spoke yesterday, they we’re on the phone and she tweeted out today, so if he was on Twitter, he’d be trending right now. But you know those kinds of things, but I think he’ll be extremely popular here. But we all know that. A lot of popularity depends on how many games you win.”

If any elements of support needed to be added for the program

“I’ve had a chance to talk to some of the staff, they’re still here. The staff is still here working, and talk about some things that we could do, need to do. And we’re in a good place.As Paris said, we’re in a good place in what we do. He was in our facilities today and looking around. But he’s a guy that’s gonna roll up the sleeves and he’s gonna be in the gym, and that that’s the important part. But we have to continue to provide resources and opportunities for our student-athletes. I’ve always said, we’re gonna take out any negativity in the recruiting process. We’re gonna do what we need to do, so that if a young man or young woman comes here to visit our campus, that they make a decision that’s based on things that don’t relate to any things we don’t have.

On his message to alumni who wanted another candidate

“I value our former players in our lettermen, there’s no question about it. You’re speaking in code and I understand your code. I had a great conversation with the person you’re speaking about [Gamecocks great BJ Mckie], and I did get a chance to meet him. We didn’t go in that direction. I’m hopeful that, you know, as a former letterman if I was in basketball, he very well would have been my favorite too. That’s just part of the process. But I think when people get to know Lamont, that they’ll embrace them and everything will be fine.”

What made him the best fit

“Like I said earlier, I think his growth pattern that he’s been on, the time he spent as assistant coach, where he started, where he ended up, the opportunities to be successful in a program that went to the postseason, that saw it firsthand how it really works, and then go to a program that was not very successful immediately. Where he got hit, he kind of got punched in the mouth early on. And then he built that thing up, and he improved his NET ranking at Chattanooga every year, from the first year to this year. I think it was a 63 or so. He improved every single year that resulted in a championship. So I think it was the body of work many big difference.”

On how multiple SEC openings impacted the search

“I don’t know how you described it, but it was a boat race, it was hectic. I think I alluded to it earlier, I know there were two nights where Chance and I maybe got three hours of sleep because we just didn’t feel like we could stop and we didn’t stop, when we had the meeting with Coach Martin, I guess it was a week ago on Monday. That was, from an integrity standpoint, I didn’t move forward before that. Now, were agents calling? Were we talking? That happens all the time. But we did not move forward. And then we did. And we have slowed down. I think tonight might be the slowest I’ve been in quite a while. So that’s just part of that. It was a unique year that (six) jobs ended up opening. Coach (Mike) White went over to Georgia, and you see the other positions in our conference are fueled by the mid-major guys if you will, which is sort of normal. And so now we’ll see who does the best in that group. It’s been hectic, but you know what? It’s also exciting. It’s exciting. You meet a lot of people. Like I said, I didn’t have a bad experience. I lived in this world before. And to visit with coaches and hear about their philosophies and things that are important to them, it’s a rush, but a good one.”

On Frank Martin receiving his full buyout

“Yes.”

On Year 1 expectations

“We live in a society that we’re not very patient, right?. Like I said before, I coached for a long time. And people that think, ‘Well you gotta be in the postseason every year.’ That’s awesome, if you can make that happen and like I said, we have a women’s basketball program that if she didn’t make the postseason, what would we do? So I think that, the last check I had, all of our sports have been in the postseason at least once in a four-year period at the very minimum. And am I gonna say that he’s gotta be there next year? No, I wouldn’t do that. We’ll see how it unfolds. But I think it’ll be an exciting brand of basketball, and the things we’ve talked about. We talked a lot about that during the process, and I had to tell him, like three times, I’m not a basketball aficionado. I understand what you’re telling me you’re gonna do on defense and how you create points, I get it. But that’ll happen later. So, let’s hope we get this place packed and supportive and we get the players in here that we need to make a big step.”

On having to make any promises on facilities

“No. That quite honestly, I didn’t deal with that with anybody I talked to. But that would have sort of been a non-starter for me. When you start those conversations, it would not be the fit that I’d be looking for.”

On looking at the NET Rankings

“We looked at it, but probably like, you guys, there’s part of that NET that I’m not sure I agree with the formula if you will. So, I think that has to be looked at as we go forward or the NCAA does. But it’s just something that you take a look at, and you see what the rankings are in different categories. It’s part of doing your homework and looking to see what jumps out at you that could be worthwhile.”

On the pressures on an AD during a search

“Well, you know, I guess you could say that when I coached, I had a certain degree of success. Also lost. These guys that have been with me this whole time, you know, we got the program going, we won, hit the World Series, boom, boom, boom. And then we had a gap. And you know, all of a sudden, I’m not a good coach anymore. And then we hit another stride. Now the role that I’m in, the criticism comes with a job. I understand that. I like, in many cases, I want to take the bullets. I don’t want my coaches and student athletes to take the bullets. But it’s not fun. I’m not gonna tell you that it doesn’t bother me. It doesn’t. That’s not what keeps me up at night. Other things keep me up at night, what I need to be doing to be better. But I used to take a walk a little bit for exercise. Now I take long walks, I think they’re more therapy now than they ever were before. To be honest, I mean, you have to decompress a little bit. I understand that. It’s, again, it’s not fun. Nobody likes to be criticized. I don’t care what they tell you. They may say, ‘It doesn’t bother me.’ You don’t like to hear it. But that’s part of it. I understand that. And I’m not perfect. I don’t do a lot of Twitter stuff. I’m not on Facebook, you know, that kind of thing. But I’ll see some things and Charles Bloom will share some things with me sometimes and I’ll say why don’t you share that with me? But you sometimes take a look at it and go, could we do something a little bit better? But it’s things that are important. Like if our concession lines aren’t moving good enough, I want to jump on that. But if they say you’re a bad AD, okay, next. There’s not a lot I can do about that. I can help concessions.”

On Chance Miller’s role in the search

“Tremendously helpful. We just lost one of our staffers, Dr. Steve Eigenbrot to Towson. He’s an AD now. Chance Miller is an AD as well, it was just a matter of time. You talk about somebody with a great background, who is also an attorney, has that background. I sometimes scratch my head, I go, East Tennessee, you practiced law in New York City. I don’t know how that fits, but he’s awesome. And he was with me every step of the way. And that’s the way I love it. You live and die together and in each of those conversations, and I’m very appreciative of the effort he put in.”

On his own weekend plans

“Hall’s Chophouse is on the list. I’m just being honest. But it won’t be long because baseball starts at 8. Got to do that. Coach Paris and I, he’s got work to do, but we’re going to Greensboro too. ... We’ll try to get it all in.”

This story was originally published March 24, 2022 at 7:27 PM.