Lamont Paris: barriers to winning at South Carolina are 'not significant'
It’s been a whirlwind few months for Lamont Paris at South Carolina.
The Gamecocks’ newest head coach spent the majority of it building staff and a roster while trying to get up to speed on what Columbia has to offer.
And it’s been so far so good for him.
“Things have been great here in Columbia. I’ve just really enjoyed getting to meet a bunch of guys we have on the team here and who we’ll have on the team moving forward,” Paris said recently in a Field of 68 interview. “Then the people around here have been great and very welcoming. They’re big fans. It’s just been a really good athletics down and department.”
Paris took the South Carolina job in late March after spending the last five years at Chattanooga.
There he finished with an 87-72 overall record. But he did go 65-29 over his final three seasons, taking the Mocs to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2016.
After a half-decade there, Paris is now making the jump to South Carolina and the SEC. He’s ready to try and change some of the Gamecocks’ fortunes in terms of getting to the tournament more consistently.
“There had been a history of some success here at some point…My charge would be to lead this team back to the NCAA Tournament on a consistent basis. I felt the barriers to achieving that goal were not significant in my estimation,” he said.
“It’s a region I’m familiar with and I’ve been in for the last five years. I thought it was a great opportunity and the timing was perfect.”
Things are finally slowing down with the Gamecocks nearing a completed roster.
Paris joked now he can come up for some air after a frenzied eight weeks and a dead period in place for a few days.
He built this year’s roster largely using the transfer portal, something he used during his time at Chattanooga.
“You can do it quickly. After the transfer portal hit, we won 20 games the next year,” he said. “I want to try and do it at a quick rate. But at the same time not take any shortcuts here at South Carolina in order to get us to be a consistent player in the game and in the race for SEC regular-season champs.
He’s also got some good resources around him.
“Some of the coaches have been phenomenal. I’ve spent some time with coach Beamer and also with coach Staley. She’s been incredible. Both of them have. What Dawn’s done is just phenomenal. She’s a great person,” Paris said.
“I’ve been enjoying that and trying to come up for air now that we’ve gotten a couple of recruits in this inaugural class. That helps a lot in terms of getting back to some level of normalcy.”
