One-on-one with South Carolina head coach Lamont Paris (part 1)

A fifty-foot heave, hoisted from the hands of David Jean-Baptiste, went in as the final buzzer expired. The shot from beyond half-court gave UT-Chattanooga the win and sole possession of the Southern Conference title. This shot sent the Mocs to the NCAA Tournament, giving head coach Lamont Paris his first tournament birth as a head coach.

However, the NCAA tournament is nothing new for Paris; in fact, it is an expectation. In 17 years as a D-I coach, this was his team’s ninth NCAA Tournament appearance. In six of the nine appearances, Paris’ teams have advanced twice, making it, at least, to the Sweet 16, with two Final Fours under his belt.

Under Keith Dambrot, LeBron James’ high school coach, at Akron and then Bo Ryan at Wisconsin, Paris cut his teeth in cultures of winning. He was able to take what made sense from each of them and then mold that into his own delivery.

In March, Lamont Paris became the new head coach at the University of South Carolina. He took over a program that finished tied for fifth in the SEC last season and for a coach, Frank Martin, that was the school’s third all-time winningest coach with 171 wins over his ten-year period.

Last week, I traveled down I-95 to Columbia, South Carolina, and sat with Paris in his office for close to an hour. We talked through his first few months on the job, his philosophies and visions as a coach, expectations, and, of course, we talked about GG Jackson.

With the length of our conversation, I broke it up into multiple parts. Here is part one of my exclusive one-on-one with South Carolina head men’s basketball coach Lamont Paris.

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SEC Head Coach Lamont Paris, has hearing that been able to kind of sink in yet?

Yeah. You know, it’s just different in that you don’t really spend a lot of time thinking about that. From the time you get the job, you’re trying to put a product out there and recruit the way that you need to, and that’s the main focus.

Once you get the thing, you know, friends will say something to me here and there like, “Hey, you know, you’re going to be trying to kick Calipari’s tail next year.” And I’ll be like, “Yeah, as a matter of fact, that is exactly what we’re going be trying to do.“

So until something like that happens, you don’t spend much time thinking about that. But certainly, from where I started, at the bottom of the basketball food chain, it’s a pretty cool accomplishment.

I always wanted to coach at the highest level and have a chance to get to the NCAA tournament on a consistent basis. And then to be able to put our philosophies to the test at that point. I like what we do in terms of having a chance to win in the NCAA tournament. So, if you don’t get in there, you don’t have a chance to win in there. I think by, playing in a league like this and coaching in a league like this, you’re going to be tested every night, and your chances to prove your worthiness of getting into the NCAA tournament, are abundant.

You’ve been the head coach at USC now for a couple of months. You’ve been around the guys working them out and getting to know the team. What have you seen from the guys, and what have you seen from this team?

Here’s what I like the most about our guys; they enjoy the work. They enjoy the work and the challenges that we put in front of them, the whole process. You know, some days are better than other days. Some days there’s less criticism than other days, and some days there are more times they’re being criticized for what they did, a decision they made, and how they went about their business.

At this age in their lives, it’s hard, particularly in this generation, to be criticized when you think you’re trying your hardest. So they’ve accepted that, and I’m really happy with how they’ve been in terms of that every day. They enjoy being around each other, so that’s been a real pleasure for me to be able to see them operate under those circumstances.

Have there been any surprises?

Yeah. I said this before; surprises are based on your expectations. So I’m surprised if I think a guy’s gonna be tall, and then I see him in person, and he’s short. That’s a surprise. So it wasn’t about expectations as much, other than just kind of seeing how we go, where we go, what it’s like, what are guys gonna do at practice, how are they gonna respond to things that I say and the buttons that we push.

I do enjoy the fact that guys really get along, and they seem to really enjoy working and learning different things and new things.

There’ve been some surprises in the way that you mean it. Meechie (Johnson) didn’t really play the point at Ohio State. But he played it most of his life growing up and played the point for his uncle in high school. So he wanted that opportunity, and I put him in that spot. And how he’s handled that, some of the passes he’s made on a consistent basis have been really, really good, I mean, some high-level reads. So by what I know what you mean by surprise, that would be one.

The city (Columbia, South Carolina) is great. And, so I guess that would be a surprise because I didn’t know. I’ve been blessed now in the cities that I’ve lived in; Chattanooga was a gem. I mean, I had no idea what that (Chattanooga, Tennessee) was going be like, and it’s an incredible city.

I feel the same way about Columbia. There was a little bit of an inside view of what it was because my older brother lived here for a couple of years while he was in the Air Force. He told me a couple of things about it, so I knew it was a good city. But it’s really exceeded what even my expectations were.

But in general, in a lot of other ways, it is what I thought it would be. The people here have been really great and supportive. The fan base is a little bit surprising. They’re really into it. Not that I didn’t expect that they would be, but that’s always a good thing. That can be a double-edged sword sometimes, but it’s really good that they’re involved.

So you’ve coached in nine NCAA tournaments with three different programs. You’ve been in five or six Sweet Sixteens. What do you think goes into building that culture of winning around a program?

One philosophy I’ve always had is that if you recruit enough winners, winning will happen. So, that’s a part of it. But then also I think being honest with these guys about the things that are the most important when determining a win versus a loss.

I used to say that about Bo Ryan when people would ask what his biggest strengths were, and oftentimes it was not basketball things. But the biggest basketball thing I would always say about him was that if there was an equation, and at the end, it’s A plus B equals C, and in this equation, C is a win.

So, the coefficient that’s associated with A is a factor that’s really important. And what is associated with B is one that’s not as important. We spend all the time on A and not as much on B. That’s not always the sexiest thing in the world of basketball, and so sometimes you can get caught up in these other things that don’t affect winning quite as much.

That’s what I try to do spend as much time developing the things that affect winning the most. I try to develop that culture. A culture of the expectation of consistency, of commitment to principles that are winning principles. Not a culture of wonder, wondering how doing something impacts winning.

You know, again, having been in all these NCAA tournament games and advancing. Most of the times I’ve coached in the NCAA tournament, I’ve advanced two times, and that’s on average. So knowing what a culture of winning looks like and then trying to get that concept to the guys is the challenge.

**This was part one of a multi-part series with new South Carolina head coach Lamont Paris. Stay tuned in the coming days to www.on3.com as the interview continues.