Top transfer recruit B.J. Mack talks Lamont Paris, Gamecocks basketball before visit
The transfer portal experience can be as exhausting as it is exhilarating — the constant phone calls and texts from coaches and recruiting coordinators. The impromptu visits. The social media game.
Former Wofford big man B.J. Mack, one of the most sought-after transfers left in the portal, prefers a more personal touch. That’s one of the key reasons why coach Lamont Paris and South Carolina are among his final five choices.
Paris called Mack the day the graduate transfer entered the portal and quickly set up an in-home visit with him and his parents, Brian and Larrietta. The entire USC coaching staff sat at the family’s kitchen table for breakfast. All the while, coaches pulled up videos and demonstrated to Mack exactly how they planned to use him and why he’s such an important piece of the puzzle. Paris has texted with Mack every day, and Mack calls the second-year USC head coach a “super genuine guy.”
Mack won’t announce a decision until May 4 — his mother’s birthday — but the Charlotte native will visit Columbia on Friday and spend the weekend exploring the campus and getting to know the Gamecock players, coaches and facilities.
It’s a visit that means quite a lot to Paris and his staff. Ever since the transfer portal window opened, Mack has been the top target on their board. Mack is also considering LSU, Arkansas, Alabama and Iowa.
“I’m just trying to find a place where I can build a great relationship with the coaching staff,” Mack told The State. “I just turned 23 last Tuesday, so I’m still a very impressionable young man. So it’s finding a coach that can lead me in the right way and in the right direction.”
Connection is important to Mack, and one aspect he likes about USC is the campus is only a 90-minute drive from most of his family. It helps, too, that he’s already well-acquainted with Paris from the two years they overlapped in the Southern Conference.
A five-year head coach at Chattanooga before replacing Frank Martin at USC last season, Paris built the Mocs into an NCAA Tournament team by Year 5 largely through shrewd transfer portal additions, adding experienced players instead of building from scratch. While playing at Wofford, Mack admired how Paris emphasized the big men in his offense and especially how he got the best out of former Kansas forward Silvio De Sousa.
“Being able to take in those guys that were transfers and being able to help them grow their game and get them to where they want to go — I can see how that translates a lot for me,” Mack told The State.
Mack’s fit at USC
By the time Paris arrived in Columbia last spring and built his staff, he was playing from behind on the recruiting trail. Additions like former Ohio State guard Meechie Johnson and The Citadel’s Hayden Brown proved crucial, but the makeshift roster managed only an 11-21 season in Year 1.
Much like he did at Chattanooga, Paris has hit the portal hard heading into Year 2, quipping when the portal opened that “this is when the real season begins.”
So far, Paris has backed up those words and reeled in an intriguing group of experienced transfers for 2023-24. Former Minnesota guard Ta’Lon Cooper was one of the top passers in the Big Ten last year and gives the team a strong option at point guard. Similar to last season with Brown, Paris tapped The Citadel and added versatile 6-8 forward Stephen Clark, a graduate transfer who averaged 16.3 points last year. Just this week, the Gamecocks brought in former Vanderbilt forward Myles Stute — one of the top 3-point shooters in the SEC.
It’s a strong transfer class, but Mack would be the crown jewel. The frontcourt was USC’s most glaring area of weakness last year. Illinois transfer Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk started the year at center but was relegated to the bench after struggling to impact games in the post. Sophomore Josh Gray, a 7-foot forward, blossomed over the course of the season to be the team’s top rebounder and took hold of the center position. But his offensive toolset is limited and still developing.
Mack is exactly the kind of player the Gamecocks could’ve used in the post last year — an experienced, polished big man that can also shoot from deep and stretch the floor.
In his last two seasons as an everyday starter for the Terriers, the 6-8 Mack averaged 16 points per game, and he’s averaged 5.2 rebounds per game in his career. Playing for an analytically driven coaching staff at Wofford that encourages 3-point shooting, Mack has refined that part of his game, making 52 of 155 attempts (33.5%) last season.
Mack said that he’s been in contact with the other transfers who have committed to South Carolina this offseason, and he likes the group USC has assembled. He just talked to Stute on the phone after he announced his commitment to USC on Monday.
“He’s a knockdown shooter,” Mack said. “And then Ta’Lon ... that’s a great facilitator. And then they have shooters to be able to open the floor up. College basketball is trying be similar to the NBA now, so being able to spread the floor out and having shooters around the floor is going to be a very crucial part of the game.”
It’s taken time for Mack to narrow his many suitors down to five, and his decision still won’t come for a couple of weeks. But from playing for South Florida to transferring to Wofford to now looking at Power Five options, Mack is grateful for this moment.
“It feels great to know that my hard work is paying off,” Mack said. “You always feel as a kid that you want to go to the top schools in the country and you want to get that recognition. So it’s like a childhood dream come true to be able to know that I’m on such a high level — a Power Five level. It means everything to be able to be on that type of stage.”
