Lamont Paris' Quarter-Zip is a thing with South Carolina Basketball
As I was scrolling through South Carolina Basketball’s Twitter feed to prepare for tomorrow night’s game vs. the Gamecocks, one topic kept popping up that made very little sense: quarter-zips.
At first, I thought Gamecock faithful were being very self-aware with their jokes about the item of clothing, the go-to choice for men late 20s and older when you want to look nice but not too nice. For that reason, it didn’t seem too odd that Shane Beamer tweeted that he’ll be wearing his quarter-zip to the Kentucky game tomorrow. He is Captain Quarter-Zip, after all. He probably wears them to sleep.
Then I noticed a tweet from Dawn Staley, head coach of South Carolina’s No. 1-ranked women’s team, congratulating the men’s team on their win at Arkansas that ended with, “Black quarter zip for the dub!” This couldn’t be just a coincidence.
As you might expect, a Google search for “South Carolina basketball quarter-zip” resulted in a LOT of shopping links but after scrolling, I stumbled upon an article titled, “Quarter-Zip Drip: Gamecock coach Lamont Paris’ attire a star of 7-0 start.” From there, it was clear that Paris’ quarter-zip is a thing. So much so that there’s an entire page dedicated to it in South Carolina’s game notes with the heading “The LP Quarter-Zip – It’s a Way of Life.”
According to the South Carolina media relations staff, the quarter-zip has been a staple of Paris’ wardrobe since he took the job at South Carolina in March 2022, so much so that they’ve nicknamed it the “Q-Zip.”
“Gamecock fans across the country began to quickly realize through various posts on social media and appearances made by Paris throughout the community how important this article of clothing was to him. His commitment to wearing the 1/4 zip in any and all situations with weather playing zero factor
also became very apparent. If it’s 95 degrees with 100 percent humidity in the heart of July in famously hot Columbia, the chances of seeing Paris in a 1/4 zip are in the 99th percentile.”
At first, I thought that was a joke, but I scrolled through Paris’ Twitter feed and found this picture from June 2022, presumably a hot time in Columbia, where he is helping his players move in…wearing a quarter-zip.
A month later, he wore a quarter-zip to an outdoor event with the Gamecock Club in Charleston on a 95-degree day. Psychotic behavior.
Also included in the section is a very in-depth description of quarter-zips (“You have a number of different options to style it by simply just adjusting the zipper height.”) and a breakdown of Paris’ record in each one he’s coached in this season. I’m surprised he hasn’t ditched the one he’s lost in three times yet.
- Black with Gamecock Men’s Basketball wordmark: 7-3
- White with gray ribbed sleeves: 3-0
- Charcoal with black accents and block C: 2-0
- Black with stacked block C: 2-0
- Black with block C: 1-0
There’s even a Quarter-Zip Cam during games at Colonial Life Arena:
And Quarter-Zip shirts (and presumably quarter-zips):
There are Quarter-Zip parody Twitter accounts. There’s a hashtag, #QZipSeason. Last week, South Carolina hosted a Quarter-Zip Night vs. Georgia, giving out 1,000 t-shirts with the quarter-zip design to students.
“It’s comfortable, it’s a very versatile article of clothing,” Paris said of quarter zips when asked in December. “Especially during basketball season down here, when the weather is sometimes nice enough, sometimes a little colder than what you were expecting. Same thing in the gym. You get into some of these gyms, sometimes they’re a little cooler, a little warmer.
“They’re usually lightweight Q-zips that I go with. Zippers over buttons all day, right?”
I mean, it’s hard to argue with that, unless we’re talking pants, and then elastic over both. Time to add a loss to one of those quarter-zip records tomorrow night.
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