Report: South Carolina expected to hire Lamont Paris

UPDATED: ESPN’s Pete Thamel and Jeff Borzello reported Monday night, citing sources, the Gamecocks were finalizing a five-year deal to make UT-Chattanooga’s Lamont Paris South Carolina’s new men’s basketball coach, and later reported that the deal is now finalized.

The deal still requires the formality of approval from the board of trustees later this week, according to the report.

Sources: South Carolina and Chattanooga coach Lamont Paris have finalized a five-year deal to make him the school’s next head coach. Paris led Chattanooga to a 27-8 record this season and the school’s first NCAA bid since 2016. (Reporting with @jeffborzello).

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) March 22, 2022

ORIGINAL STORY: South Carolina is zeroing in on their coach, according to multiple reports.

The Gamecocks are targeting UT-Chattanooga’s Lamont Paris as the program’s next head coach according to both Stadium’s Jeff Goodman and CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein.

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Paris has spent the last five seasons with the Mocs, taking them to the NCAA Tournament this season. They were minutes away from beating No. 4-seeded Illinois.

Paris is 87-72 at Chattanooga and 43-45 in the league. He’s had better success of late, winning 20 games in two of his last three seasons. Over his last three seasons, he’s 65-29 with a 33-19 record in the SoCon.

He finished atop the league this year in what’s been his best season with the program, going 27-7 with a 14-4 record and winning both the regular season and conference titles.

Before South Carolina, Paris was an assistant at Wisconsin and was on staff for multiple Sweet 16s and two trips to the Final Four including one national championship game.

He’s also been an assistant at DePauw, IUP and Akron in his life. The Finlday, Ohio native played his college basketball at Wooster.

The Gamecocks moved on from Frank Martin just over a week ago, announcing his firing after 10 seasons in Columbia.

Martin went to two postseasons in a decade with the Gamecocks, one NIT and one NCAA Tournament. In his one NCAA Tournament, the Gamecocks went all the way to the Final Four.

Martin ultimately ended his time at South Carolina 171-147 and 79-99 in the SEC. The Gamecocks finished above .500 seven times and above .500 in the SEC four times and even once.

He helped lead the Gamecocks to two of their winningest programs in school history.

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