Lamont Paris embraces teaching role with new-look Gamecock basketball roster
Coming off a disappointing season and with a retooled roster, Lamont Paris couldn’t wait to get back to work on developing this year’s team.
The Gamecocks started summer workouts earlier this season and hardly resemble the team that went 12-20 this season and finished last in the Southeastern Conference. USC has 11 new players of the 14 scholarship players currently on the roster.
Of the 11 players, six are transfers, including Ohio State’s Meechie Johnson, Utah’s Mike Sharavjamts and Boston College’s Elijah Strong. Johnson is in his second stint with USC and was part of the team’s NCAA Tournament team in 2024.
The five incoming freshmen are headlined by highly touted guard Eli Ellis. The Gamecocks’ top returner from last season is Myles Stute, who is healthy after missing most of the season with a blood clot in his leg.
“I have been looking forward to this and waiting for this,” Paris said Monday at his news conference. “These last few weeks couldn’t have gotten here soon enough for me and my staff. We really enjoy this part of it.
“… It is a challenge but I am on record as saying this is my favorite part of this whole job is the relationships and development of players.”
Having so many new players on a roster is more common these days in NCAA men’s basketball with the increased use of the transfer portal. Because of that, teams are capable of quick turnarounds from one year to the next.
SEC foe Missouri showed last season it could be done. The Tigers went 8-24 in 2023-24, including 0-18 in the SEC. Last season, Missouri went 22-12 and made it to the NCAA Tournament.
That kind of turnaround will require more attention to detail and making sure that all the players are on the same page, something Paris is really embracing.
“You have to do a lot of the teaching and a lot of the demonstrations to 11 new guys,” Paris said. “It is a challenge but it is the type of thing that the longer you are in this, you like that kind of thing in teaching and guys that want to learn.
“There is so much learning that is going on already and guys are locked in to what you are saying and trying their hardest to do what they have been taught.”
Paris and his staff are hoping they can recapture the magic with this year’s team like the one from the 2023-24 season. The Gamecocks won a program-record 26 games that season and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2017.
That season, USC got production from its transfers such as BJ Mack, TaLon Cooper and Stute as well as contributions from then-freshmen Collin Murray-Boyles, who was taken in the first round of the NBA Draft this week.
Paris talked about that team’s chemistry and makeup which was helped by the preseason trip to the Bahamas, during which they got 10 extra practices and won both of their exhibition games. Trips like that can only happen every four years, so Paris said he will have to do other team-bonding exercises to help with that.
“Do some things. Some activities, cookout, pool party, smaller things and help expedite team bonding and communication.” Paris said.
