South Carolina Basketball: A Tough Season Finished with Clear Progress
By Kevin Miller
When Athletics Director Ray Tanner and the University of South Carolina decided to part ways with men’s basketball coach Frank Martin, the fanbase was split on the move.
On one side of the argument, after the initial rebuild, Frank Martin’s teams competed most seasons, culminating in 2017 with a Final Four appearance. Rarely did the Gamecocks seem unable to compete and make life difficult for their opponents.
On the other side of the argument, the Gamecocks made only one NCAA tournament (the Final Four appearance) during Martin’s decade prowling the sidelines. With the clear exception of the five NBA talents that led the Courtcocks to the Final Four (Sindarius Thornwell, PJ Dozier, Duane Notice, Chris Silva, and Hassani Gravett), recruiting big-time talent seemed an almost impossible task for Martin, making upward trajectory seem unlikely.
After parting ways with Martin, the Gamecocks’ offseason coaching search was a rollercoaster of speculation and rumor-mongering. “I saw [insert potential coaching candidate here] in Columbia!” and “I heard [insert different coaching candidate here] was offered the job!” were common refrains heard through Gamecock nation last spring. The candidate list was large and contained a wide variety of targets. Former head coaches with successful on-court resumes like Sean Miller were intermixed with more local names such as Bob Richey and Gregg Marshall.
In the end, Lamont Paris, Chattanooga’s head man and Wisconsin’s former top assistant, was hired to lead South Carolina back to the glory days of Frank McGuire when the Gamecocks were among the country’s best teams. Paris’ first regular season in Columbia finished a disappointing 11-20 and 4-14 in the SEC, and a likely one-and-done or two-and-done in the SEC Tournament will definitively end the campaign last week. However, not all 11-20 seasons are created equally. Most of the nuance in this discussion comes from splitting the season in two.
An up-and-down out-of-conference slate saw the Gamecocks beat Clemson and Georgetown but lose badly to Furman and Colorado State. Outside of a strange upset in Lexington, Kentucky over the Wildcats, the beginning of SEC play wasn’t good. Despite bringing in 5-star forward GG Jackson, the Gamecocks failed to put a competitive group on the court most nights during the first stretch of SEC play. Many factors played a role in the disappointment, none larger than the roster.
As is often the reality of modern college athletics, after Frank Martin was fired, eight players entered the transfer portal and left the team. Portal defections and graduations combined to result in the Gamecocks losing ten of their top thirteen players from the previous season. Outside of traditional blue blood powerhouses like Kentucky and Duke, no team can effectively withstand that type of roster turnover.
As the team (and its new coaching staff) started to mesh, the on-court product got better. The first seven games in conference play saw the Gamecocks go 1-6 with only one of those losses being by less than 11 points. Things turned around somewhat after that.
The final 11 games of the conference slate saw South Carolina win three games, and only one of the losses was by more than 11 points. On Senior Day, the Gamecocks beat the Georgia Bulldogs to finish the regular season with a win. They also won three of their final seven games and took #2 Alabama to overtime during the same stretch. The on-court competitiveness was drastically different than earlier in the year.
Returning players Jacobi Wright and Josh Gray showed real development this year, as well. Neither player was particularly useful for last year’s team and struggled at the beginning of the 2022-2023 season. By the end of the year, Gray became one of the SEC’s best rebounders and interior defenders, and Wright became a reliable scorer and secondary ball handler. With both players coming back next year to join lead guard Meechie Johnson and young wing Zachary Davis, the Gamecocks’ roster seemingly is going to get better from within.
The “GG Jackson situation” seemed a horrible thing for the program and its head coach as Lamont Paris and Jackson had about a two-week stretch where their relationship seemed all but lost. However, the two seem to have reconciled, and now, most fans don’t even bring up the previous difficulties.
The on-court competitive progress and the mending of the Jackson-Paris relationship put together a small amount of momentum for the program and its public perception. Jackson’s less-than-dominant season also has raised some speculation about a return.
With several of the country’s top players in upcoming recruiting classes residing in or near South Carolina, the future of the program could be contingent upon whether or not kids who are 15-18 years old want to accept the challenge of helping their local school climb the college basketball mountain. The highest-regarded of these prospects is Lexington High School’s Cam Scott, but as the Gamecocks see now with Jackson, this basketball program needs more work than just adding one player. With work (and buy-in from talented players), the Gamecocks can make that climb.
Was this 2022-2023 basketball season a disappointment? Absolutely. Should fans be calling for Lamont Paris’ job? Absolutely not. The stagnant mediocrity of the program in recent years—coupled with the mass exodus of players in the transfer portal—will require time to fix. Even at Chattanooga, Paris’ team struggled for two seasons before competing in the conference in years 3-5.
Coach Paris and the many new faces on this team deserve the opportunity to work and build a culture within the program. As the coaching staff improves and gets used to life in the SEC, they will bring in their own talent and develop the roster to fit what they want the team to look like. Only once that has truly begun can the Lamont Paris era be fairly judged.
It’s too early to tell if Coach Paris is the man to lead Gamecock basketball back to relevance and beyond. One thing is for sure, though: jumping ship too early on a coach will sink a mediocre program. If, after a couple of years, expectations are still not being met and progress is still not being made, more difficult conversations can be had. Until then, give Lamont Paris time, Gamecock fans. Give him time.