Lamont Paris details how Meechie Johnson is leading in his return to South Carolina

Now going into his sixth college season, point guard Meechie Johnson has returned for his second stint with the South Carolina Gamecocks. Now an experienced veteran, his hope is to become a leader for the team going into the 2025-26 season.

The summer is now underway, but that doesn’t mean Johnson doesn’t have the opportunity to act as a leader. Certainly, his head coach Lamont Paris has seen that, and he recently detailed how he’s been approaching that return.

“It’s hard to compare this year just to last year,” Lamont Paris said. “But I will say he’s been so excited about getting here and being here. I think as we all get older, we’re more experienced and we’re probably a little more in tune with what that means, whether that’s you’re in your first year being a parent or your fifth year of being a parent. I think most people would probably say they’d do it differently five years down the road. Some may say I gave up five years later, but I think you’re probably a little more seasoned at that.”

Meechie Johnson began his career at Ohio State and spent two seasons with the Buckeyes before transferring to South Carolina. There, he spent another two seasons before transferring back to Ohio State. Now, another season later, he’s back with the Gamecocks. That has given him and Lamont Paris some direct experience with one another.

“And so I think this is a guy that says, ‘This was a great situation for me. I got a guy and a staff that believes in me totally, I have a fan base in a community that supports me totally, and I’m really excited about being back. I know what my role is already, I know what this is going to look like. I’m familiar with these things. I’m very comfortable with those things.’ And so I think he’s probably a little more intentional from a leadership standpoint,” Paris said. “He’s intentional about it, but at the same time, it happens more naturally. So that’s him.”

During his time at South Carolina, he played in 66 games, making 62 starts during that time. That included starting every game during the 2023-24 season when he’d go on to become a Second-Team All-SEC selection. However, a back injury limited him in his return season to Ohio State, limiting him to 10 games last year.

For his career, Meechie Johnson is averaging 9.2 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game. He’s also shot 37 percent from the field, 33.1 percent from three-point range, and 74.2 percent from the free-throw line for his career.

“And then, you know, I think that’s probably more like, compared to when he was here before, it was his second year here. And you know, you’re bringing in new pieces, and we had a lot of new faces coming in. You’re still trying to prove some things. I think he’s beyond that. I think at this stage he’s not trying to be, I alluded to this, he’s not trying to prove anything, not to not to anybody that matters in his basketball world, not to any of these people here,” Paris said.

“You know, he’ll be trying to prove that this team can win a lot of games, is what he’ll be trying to prove. But he’s very comfortable, and he knows why he’s back here, right? He knows why he came back here, and he knows why we wanted him back here, and he knows what his role is, and there’s a comfort that comes with that in just how you move from day to day.”

South Carolina had a very difficult season last year, going 12-20 overall and 2-16 in SEC play. The hope is that with Meechie Johnson leading the team on the court, Lamont Paris is going to be able to get the Gamecocks back to the NCAA Tournament.