South Carolina basketball coach Lamont Paris disrespected in national coach rankings

The 2023-2024 South Carolina basketball season was a fun ride.

The Gamecocks ascended from an abysmal 2022-2023 campaign to a return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the Final Four run at the end of the 2016-2017 year. The regular season ended with USC tied for 2nd in the SEC and tying the program's all-time record for single-season wins.

After inheriting a horrific situation following Frank Martin's dismissal (the Gamecock roster was depleted by the transfer portal), Paris flipped the trajectory of the program in just one year, getting USC back to winning and improving recruiting to its best point in about a decade. It came as no surprise when Coach Paris was a finalist for most of the National Coach of the Year awards last season.

Still, that isn't enough for some college basketball analysts.

Joey Loose of Busting Brackets released the outlet's yearly rankings of every head coach in the country, and while most of the list is handled pretty well, Lamont Paris was tremendously disrespected by his placement.

Despite writing nothing but complimentary things about Paris and the work he has done for the South Carolina basketball program, Loose ranked the head Gamecock as the 72nd-best head coach in college basketball. Paris is controversially behind names like Florida's Todd Golden (who he completely outcoached last season), Texas' Rodney Terry (who many Longhorn fans want fired), Memphis' Penny Hardaway (a perennial underachiever who has one ranked finish in six years at a strong program, the same number as Paris has earned in just two in Columbia), and Oklahoma's Porter Moser (who hasn't gotten to the NCAA Tournament at all in his three years with the Sooners).

The reality is that Lamont Paris was a top-5 coach in the country during the 2023-2024 season (as evidenced by his award nominations), and even though he doesn't belong nearly that high in a comprehensive ranking, 72nd is far too low.

Paris and his South Carolina basketball team will begin their season (and Paris' quest for a higher spot in Busting Brackets' rankings next year) on November 4th with a home contest at Colonial Life Arena against the North Florida Ospreys.