Lamont Paris details the defensive decision that sparked South Carolina comeback vs. Florida

Florida took a nine-point lead with 11 minutes to go against South Carolina but the Gamecocks deployed a zone to help get back into the game and take the win.

Like most college hoops teams, South Carolina typically plays man-to-man defense. However, head coach Lamont Paris does like to mix it up with a zone every once in a while, and when his group fell into a perilous deficit in the second half, he deployed a 1-3-1 zone that helped spark a run. After the game, he was asked about that defensive tactic and explained why it was the right move against Florida.

“We had talked just briefly on it. There had been a couple other games that teams had made a little comeback and had used some zone,” he said. “So, it was in there. It’s always in there, depending on how we play.”

Paris doesn’t prefer to play zone, but if he needs to change up the strategy on defense, he’s certainly not afraid to pull it out.

“Trust me, I don’t want to break it out unless we’re in dire straits, but it’s always in there. But they were being so effective off the ball, screening in a variety of ways. Sometimes, it’s easy to shore up if — okay, this is what we’re doing today, off the ball screen, we’re always giving up the pocket pass. Like, let’s make an adjustment in-game or at halftime that we can do that.”

South Carolina had to make that adjustment because the Florida guards were punishing them off the dribble, especially in the screen-and-roll game.

“But they were getting a pocket pass, they threw a lob or two, the primary ball-handler was getting into the paint and finishing, and they got some good mid-range scores. Those guys are good. So typically, while the numbers aren’t that high on that shot, these guys are really talented and they made some.”

Since the Gamecocks couldn’t stop them, Paris kept threatening a move to zone and eventually did it.

“I pump-faked like three times in the two times in the timeouts leading up to it, just to get the guys going. Because sometimes, it’s a lot of effort to do the 1-3-1 and I just kept telling them, I was like, ‘Guys, I don’t want to do the 1-3-1, but we’ll give you another couple minutes here and we may have to go to it.’ And so we ultimately did and it was really effective for us, and we were just really active.”

After running that pick and roll action against man defense for most of the afternoon, the zone just gave the Florida guards an entirely different look to operate against.

“So ultimately, the main decision in going to it was that I wanted to create some indecision in the ball screens or minimize the number of ball screens that you would set. You got some built-in help to absorb aggressive drivers.”