Lamont Paris thanks media for picking South Carolina last in SEC, discredits preseason rankings

SEC Basketball Media Days tipped off on Wednesday in Birmingham, Alabama, and with that comes the preseason rankings ahead of the 2023-2024 season.

South Carolina was picked last in this year’s preseason ranking as they enter their second season under head coach Lamont Paris. Paris reacted to the Gamecocks’ projection at SEC Tipoff ’24, but first gave his personal breakdown of preseason rankings at large.

“Here’s what I’ll say about the picks, there were 14 picks last year, does anybody know how many of those were right? The team was picked at whatever spot and ended up finishing in that spot out of the 14 picks?” Paris asked. “Zero. Not one team last year was picked in this spot and finished in that same spot.”

“So I say that only to say, also half of the picks last year let’s say if your standard deviation was one, or two, or three it seemed like you knew something if you picked those right, i.e. I picked a team first and they finished fourth, we had some sort of idea. Seven of the picks last year fit into that criteria, seven of the picks were off by more than four, two of the picks one was off by seven, one was off by eight. So there’s not much in a pick,” Paris added.

Paris’ opinions on preseason rankings are clear, and he certainly backed up his stance with the data. But when it comes to the qualitative elements of their upcoming season projection, he showed gratitude for the extra motivation.

“But I will say this, personally and I hope our team takes this, the only thing I can thank them for is that they picked us last. Second to last is nothing, I can’t even use that as billboard material, second to last. So last it is.”

Paris broke down the strength of the SEC, as the conference boasted the most teams in the NCAA Tournament ever last season and tied with the Big Ten for the most tournament teams last postseason as well. He also harped on the fact that the Gamecocks did not finish last in the conference last year and have nearly quadrupled their experience from a year ago to this season with 480 total starts under their belts now compared to 122 last year.

“So I don’t know, maybe we’ll finish last, possibly. But to me, just as the way I think, the audacity for someone to say you’re actually gonna finish last. The league was as good as it was last year, we were undermanned, I would say that for certain we were undermanned,” Paris admitted. “We won four games, we won at Kentucky, we had the number two team in the country in an overtime game, they had to score at the end of the game to force overtime. We played another NCAA Tournament team to the last possession, we had three overtime losses, didn’t finish last, and then we’re picked to finish last.”

The Gamecocks finished 4-14 last season in conference play ahead of Ole Miss and LSU, getting wins over both squads in the regular season. That paired with the fight they showed versus the conference’s top teams in moments and their expected improvement from Paris has him confused about his team’s preseason standing.

“So maybe the league has gotten that much better. I know my team is more experienced, I know my team is better, so I don’t aspire to not be last. But someone’s asking me about the fact that we were picked last, so it just doesn’t make that much sense to me,” Paris said. “But hopefully to my team it will be something, the source of inspiration and disrespect honestly to them to come out and play. They’re not playing to not be last, what a low goal that would be. But you’re asking about being picked last, I don’t see it.”

Paris and the Gamecocks will tip off the regular season on November 6 when they host South Carolina Upstate in an in-state, non-conference matchup.