South Carolina coach Lamont Paris details point guard plan

South Carolina basketball fans have wondered all offseason what the 2025-2026 season will look like for their favorite team. The Gamecocks have an overhauled roster that will include (at least) 11 newcomers. USC has signed five class of 2025 prospects and six players from the transfer portal. With all of that turnover, one of the biggest questions has focused on the point guard position.

None of the players who saw time at point guard last season will return. Jamarii Thomas graduated (and is seeking an extra year in the transfer portal), Jacobi Wright graduated, and Morris Ugusuk (who played more off-ball than on) hit the transfer portal, winding up at West Virginia. Even non-point perimeter players like Zach Davis, Arden Conyers, and Austin Herro transferred.

In fact, Cam Scott–a player who entered the portal before withdrawing–is the only guard returning. Incoming freshman Eli Ellis and transfer portal additions Kobe Knox, Meechie Johnson, and Mike Sharavjamts are all guards, too. Based on word from around the program this offseason, it hasn’t seemed likely that USC would add another guard in this year’s transfer portal cycle. With one scholarship remaining, South Carolina is holding a spot in case forward Collin Murray-Boyles withdraws from the NBA Draft.

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Of the team’s guards, only three appear to have any possibility of manning the point this season. During a stop in Greenville on the Welcome Home Tour, head coach Lamont Paris talked about his three primary ballhandlers.

“We brought in a lot of guys that can handle the ball,” he said. “Meechie Johnson’s coming back. He will do the bulk, probably, of what we’re doing from a point guard spot. That’s one thing that he’s looking forward to doing. He’ll also play off the ball…We’re bringing Eli Ellis in, who has had the ball in his hands and made decisions consistently. You look at another guy, like Mike Sharavjamts, another one that is extremely capable as a ball handler. And so I think it’ll be a lot of guys that can do it,” Paris stated.

However, he made sure to differentiate between ballhandlers who bring the ball up the court and players who make the key decisions in an offensive set. Both roles are important for point guards (and other facilitating players), and the Gamecocks will spend a lot of time with multiple on the floor at a time.

“Those three guys (Johnson, Ellis, and Sharavjamts) will probably be the ones that would bring the ball up in a scenario that you would say, hey, he’s running the point right now. But a lot of things that we do end up, the decision maker ends up being the guy that actually didn’t bring the ball up,” Paris explained. “So I think there’s a lot of value in having a multitude of guys that can make plays and make decisions, and capable offensive guys, but also unselfish offensive players, too.”

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None of the three players is a prototypical point guard, but they all bring something unique to the table.

Johnson, Paris’ favorite for the job right now, has two years of experience playing for the Gamecocks. Before leaving via the transfer portal ahead of last season, the combo guard Johnson played the 2022-2023 season as the team’s primary point guard and spent much of the 2023-2024 campaign as the second option, spelling starter Ta’Lon Cooper at times and playing a secondary facilitation role when they shared the court. Johnson also has the ability to break down the defense and create for himself and others off the dribble.

Like Johnson, Ellis is a combo guard. He played a lot of point guard in high school while playing for Overtime Elite’s YNG Dreamerz. Because the ball was often in his hands, he tallied a lot of assists, and he’s growing as a facilitator. Still, Ellis is a dynamic scorer first, and he has the profile of a player who could turn into an elite off-ball, screen-utilizing shooter and a strong pick-and-roll player when he has the ball in his hands.

Sharavjamts might be the most intriguing of the three options. Standing at 6-8 or 6-9, the Mongolian transfer has court vision and passing ability that far exceed his statistical profile. With ridiculous length for a perimeter player, he also presents matchup problems for opposing defenses when matched up with smaller guards. Sharavjamts has played on the ball a lot, but he’s rarely been utilized as a primary facilitator and creator. However, he seems capable of doing so if Paris and company can unlock a little more in his game.

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All three options fit the mold of what Paris wanted to bring in this offseason as players who can do a lot of things with the basketball or who have been experienced a lot in this game (or both). The Gamecock headman said that he and his staff put “an emphasis on experience, on skill” in recruiting. “If I look back to two seasons ago,” he said, “those were the two areas that I thought we excelled. We had a bunch of close games. We had a lot of games that were close last year. And two years ago, we won a bunch of those. I think a lot of it was because we did have a little more experience in situations like that. And then also, from a skill standpoint, just as a group, I think we wanted to improve our overall skill.”

While none of Ellis, Johnson, or Sharavjamts have shot elite percentages, all three are capable shooters. In fact, all three can be really good shooters at times. Their efficiencies have been hampered by taking tough shots, something Paris tries to limit in his South Carolina offense.

Players like Knox, returner Myles Stute, and incoming freshman Grant Polk will play on the perimeter some, too. However, all three will be used primarily on the wings rather than as a ballhandling guard, especially Stute and Polk. Before last season, Paris revealed that he had long-term hopes of using Cam Scott at point guard, but based on his recent comments, that isn’t likely for now, either.

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