Lamont Paris assures Gamecocks aren’t a bad team. Can they stop the slide in SEC play?
They say there’s only one solution to a Rubik’s Cube, but finding it can feel impossible. Twist and turn all you want — it often feels like you’re just scrambling the puzzle even further.
For Lamont Paris and South Carolina, that’s exactly where they are — stuck in a loop, searching for that elusive formula but still struggling to find the adjustments that lead to a different result.
“We’ll just keep at it until we find the right combination of things that we do and people that are out there,” Paris said..
But through eight SEC games, the results have remained the same: loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss — the latest defeat coming Tuesday with USC’s 71-60 road loss to Georgia.
The Gamecocks are 10-11 overall, and their 0-8 start in SEC play has followed a frustrating pattern: a loss, followed by reassurances that they’ll flush it and move on, only to lose again. And again. And again. Eight straight times.
The Gamecocks vow to turn the page after every loss. They promise to reset and refocus. But eight games in, the story remains unchanged.
The results are extra maddening for a program that wanted to build off last year’s 26-8 season and NCAA Tournament appearance. That breakout performance earned Paris a contract extension and SEC Coach of the Year honors.
“We find ourselves in, unfortunately, a familiar territory with a similar culprit,” Paris said after Tuesday’s loss.
The biggest culprit? Turnovers.
The numbers paint a grim picture. The Gamecocks rank last in the SEC in turnover margin, and have especially struggled in the past five games. That stretch began with a season-high 25 turnovers in a road loss at Vanderbilt, and snowballed into turnover outings of 16, 16, 14 and 17.
Against SEC opponents, those mistakes have been costly. South Carolina has lost four of its last six games by no more than five points, including a heartbreaker against No. 5 Florida where the Gamecocks led until the final seconds. Similar endings came prior against then-No. 2 Auburn and Vanderbilt.
That’s what makes this slide all the more frustrating for Paris. He isn’t coaching a bad team. He’s sure of that. They just haven’t gotten the results.
“I’ve been around a lot of really, really good teams — elite teams, relative to the entire whole country,” Paris said. “And I’ve also been around some bad teams. So I know what a bad team is. And if this was a bad team, you can’t accidentally do those things. You just can’t. This league is too good. It’s the best the league has ever been.”
But how long will it take for potential to actually turn into wins? Paris believes they’re close.
With 10 SEC games left, however, the Gamecocks are running out of pages to turn and the time to turn them.
This story was originally published January 29, 2025 at 9:05 AM.
