Lamont Paris points to ‘silver lining’ of early SEC Tournament exit

Lamont Paris and South Carolina had quite the season to this point but it ended early in the SEC Tournament.

Still, there’s a silver lining to that exit with more basketball to play. The Gamecocks were blasted by Auburn 86-55 and the Tigers eventually ended up in Sunday’s SEC Championship Game.

But, that means there’s plenty of time to reset for Paris.

“I think, one, resting up,” Paris said postgame. “We’d like to play as many games in this conference tournament as possible. We’d like to win this conference tournament.

“The silver lining in it is that we got a couple guys banged up, Myles Stute, as you noticed today, was not dressed up. That’s more time for guys like him. Ta’Lon looked like he was banged up a little bit today. I didn’t have him back in towards the end of the game.”

Ta’Lon Cooper, referenced by Paris, played just 22 minutes in the game. He finished with eight points and three rebounds.

“I think what it does is give guys some time to rest up and heal up and get treatment and recover,” Paris said. “I think that’s a big part of it. So if not for winning it all, I guess this is probably — some people would probably prefer this than play another game and still not win it all. Some seeding things may go into that in terms of the NCAA tournament. I just think it will be a good time for us to get back and try to get off of our feet, rest, then do a lot of recovery.”

Lamont Paris confident in South Carolina moving forward

Despite missing out on an SEC title, Paris is already focused on the next opportunity for South Carolina.

“I mean, to be completely honest with you, I think it’s probably on to the next thing at this point,” Paris said. “Now, if you look back at your body of work, you won 15 games in a row coming into this, maybe you feel like your team might need something like this, maybe there’s something to take from losing a game like this.

“Honestly, we wanted to win. We were playing as hard as we could. It wasn’t our day today. By the grace of the basketball gods, they’re going to call our name on Sunday, and we’ll be elated about that. We’ll rejoice in that moment.”

But if you think this is the peak of South Carolina basketball, think again.

“We’re still building here,” Paris said. “That’s been a thing for us. I think that’s been the general theme. I’ve talked about that a whole bunch. What a tremendous accomplishment it will be for this group to be able to play a game or more in the NCAA tournament.

“We’ll find out where we go. We’ll rejoice in that. But I think this game, it is what it is. Guys will talk about it tonight. Some of their families are here. We’ll wake up tomorrow morning, fly back to Columbia, and the excitement will start about what the next adventure is for us. It will be a really special moment for us to be able to see our names called and start the preparation process for more survival and advance.”