Lamont Paris shares message South Carolina has on locker room board

It is common for coaches to write final instructions on a white board in the locker room before games. Coaches might choose to highlight parts of a scouting report or go over plays one final time before tip off. However, South Carolina coach Lamont Paris used a different strategy ahead of Saturday’s game against Ole Miss.

Paris had a simple message for his squad that he wanted to emphasize before the Gamecocks tried to end a two-game losing streak.

“It was all about the basic, basic stuff that has allowed us to have success,” Lamont Paris said of his final instructions to his team. “So we went back to some of that. I think just playing basic rules, trying really hard.”

Paris’ simple message worked.

South Carolina got off to a 21-3 start to the season, before losing games against Auburn and LSU. The Gamecocks then had a week off to regroup, and they made the most of it.

South Carolina earned a critical 72-59 road win to improve to 22-5 (10-4). The Gamecocks excelled on the defensive end of the court against the Rebels, and Lamont Paris was asked what led to Ole Miss shooting only 3 of 16 from 3-point range.

“Our effort and determination,” he said.

Paris was particularly pleased with sophomore guard Zachary Davis. The South Carolina native had an impressive all-around game, finishing with 14 points and 9 rebounds, while making an impact on both ends of the court.

“Zach came out of the gates, and I thought he was unbelievable. His energy defensively, he was trying really hard and in a very disciplined manner. It’s hard to be Speedy Gonzalez and also Slow Poke Rodriguez in your mind. And so he was frantic in terms of his energy and effort and determination. But he was very solid in terms of processing what was in front of him, where the ball was when this particular screen was happening. So that determines his route. … I thought he led the way that way, but I thought as a general rule we tried really hard to be intentional about performing some basic things that are basic to the DNA of our defense.”

South Carolina will attempt to win its second straight game on Wednesday at Texas A&M as the Gamecocks look to get a bit of a winning streak going down the stretch.

Paris’ team also has games remaining against Florida, Tennessee and Mississippi State. As things stand, South Carolina is No. 49 in the NET and projected as a No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament, according to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi.