South Carolina Basketball: Is Lack of Preseason Media Buzz Warranted?

Most teams coming off a 26-8 season and an NCAA tournament appearance would be given the benefit of doubt regarding preseason expectations the following year. Most teams, but not Lamont Paris’s South Carolina Gamecocks, apparently. In ESPN’s bracketology for next season, published by Joe Lunardi in June, 12 SEC teams (of 16, including Texas and Oklahoma) are included in some way, shape, or form. South Carolina, along with Georgia, LSU, and Oklahoma, are the only four teams excluded from the field or “first/next four out” category for teams just missing the cut in Lunardi’s eyes.

Entering the 2023-24 season, expectations were low, with the media picking the Gamecocks last in the then-14-team SEC at the beginning of Lamont Paris’s second year at the helm, even with new additions Ta’Lon Cooper, B.J. Mack, Collin Murray-Boyles. The loss of GG Jackson to the NBA from a team that won just four conference games in 2022-23 was likely the culprit, but it was still clear to any observer that the roster was greatly improved from the year prior. 

13 conference victories later, the Gamecocks finished in a four-way tie for second in the SEC. Their 26-7 record entering the NCAA tournament matched a program-high for wins in a season, with Lamont Paris putting together arguably the best regular season in men’s basketball history at the University of South Carolina. The Gamecocks didn’t have the same success once they matched up against Oregon in the Round of 64, but in no way did that diminish the highs of the other 33 forty-minute segments 

Of the 24 teams with a 6-seed or lower in the 2024 edition of March Madness, just three teams aren’t featured in the pre-season 2025 bracketology: San Diego State, Wisconsin, and the South Carolina Gamecocks. What’s the root cause of the (again) lack of preseason buzz from national media? (No major outlets have South Carolina ranked in the Top 25.) It’s worth a breakdown.

Who departs? Fan favorite Meechie Johnson, a cornerstone of the first two years of the Lamont Paris era and occasional offensive soul of the team. Also gone is starting point guard Ta’Lon Cooper, the “glue guy” and veteran presence who could throw a basketball through the proverbial needle, and B.J. Mack, the smooth-shooting big man that provided much-needed outside spacing for an offense built on creating good looks from outside. 

That trio combined for 51.6% of the team’s points last season, which leaves a sizable void for the Gamecocks to attempt to fill. Further down the bench, more departures left in the offseason. Josh Gray and Ebrima Dibba transferred out, while Stephen Clark ran out of eligibility. 

But where there are holes, there are new opportunities. Lamont Paris, similar to the previous offseason, targeted players that would seemingly have little trouble fitting into his tailor-made schemes. While Johnson, Cooper, Mack, Gray, Clark, and Dibba are gone, (along with arguably the most loved Gamecock, walk-on Eli Sparkman, who announced his retirement) Paris worked his magic again, both on the recruiting trail and in the portal.

Jamarii Thomas, MEAC Player of the Year at Norfolk State, has been pegged as the de-facto replacement for Ta’Lon Cooper at point guard. Nick Pringle, the uber-athletic center from Alabama’s Final Four squad, is something best resembling a slightly quicker Josh Gray, an inside force that can bring Colonial Life to its feet. Jordan Butler, a former top in-state prospect, didn’t have the best freshman season for a not-so-great Mizzou team last year, but has the potential to develop into a player with traits similar to B.J. Mack. 

Cam Scott was taken out of the grasp of new SEC rival Texas as the second-highest rated recruit in the online recruiting database era. (Lamont Paris also has the highest-rated recruit in that span, GG Jackson.) Scott, a true shooting guard who held offers from Kansas, Oregon, Alabama, and UNC among others, might have the talent to hold down the starting two-spot from the time he gets to campus. Okku Federiko, standing at 6’10” and brother of Texas Tech big man Federiko Federiko, is the other true freshman in the class. He figures to be added depth, along with redshirt freshman wing Arden Conyers, a Palmetto State product who has recently earned praise from within the program. 

Plenty of core pieces from last year’s team return as well. Most notable of these returnees is Collin Murray-Boyles, arguably the best Gamecock player I’ve seen perform live at Colonial Life Arena. After an unfortunate affliction with mono that affected the freshman’s availability in the first several weeks of the season, Murray-Boyles developed into one of the most valuable frontcourt players in the conference, both statistically and with the “eye-test.” He’s returning as a sophomore as the leader of the Gamecocks. 

Two wings, varying immensely in styles of play, also return as veteran leaders. Zachary Davis, lengthy defensive stalwart, and Myles Stute, three-point specialist, are back with the Gamecocks for the 2024-25 season. Davis replaced Stute midway through the year after the latter suffered a shoulder injury, and even after Stute returned healthy, Davis remained in the starting lineup. 

Three more Gamecocks round out the scholarships on the roster, with Jacobi Wright, Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk, and Morris Ugusuk all reprising their roles on the team. Wright figures to be the most impactful of the trio, as he was typically the first man off the bench last season, providing an offensive threat in high-leverage situations and a dependable three-point shot. BBV appeared in just two games in the months of February and March, and Ugusuk, while stealthily a very valuable player on a per-minute basis, is mostly implemented as a perimeter threat shooting the ball. 

All in all, are the Gamecocks better than last year? The answer, most likely, is no. The departure of Cooper is particularly damaging, as he might be the most “Lamont Paris” player that will ever grace the floor of CLA with Lamont Paris on the sidelines. Johnson, despite the occasional slump, was often the best scorer on the offensive side of the ball and likely was what separated the Gamecocks from a team on the NCAA tournament bubble. B.J. Mack was integral to the offensive spacing of Lamont Paris’s second iteration of Gamecock basketball, as his perimeter shooting opened up passing lanes across the court for South Carolina all year. 

But are the Gamecocks due for regression so severe it completely removes them from the postseason picture? That seems a bit like overkill. For one, they have arguably the best returning underclassman in the entire SEC. Collin Murray-Boyles is one of the most valuable big men in the conference, and the sky's the limit for a player no longer held back by a strength-sapping auto-immune disease. Jamarii Thomas and Jordan Butler might not be carbon copies of their Gamecock counterparts from last year, but they have the potential to get the job done when needed.

The development of Zachary Davis, Jacobi Wright, and Arden Conyers should be at a level higher than the general consensus. That trio is exceedingly crucial to a solid encore of last season, and I have extreme confidence in all three players, especially Davis. The addition of Cam Scott was one that Paris and his group needed. The shooting guard position lacked depth, (it still does, sort of) and that commitment was huge. 

Yes, there are questions about the depth on this roster. Yes, losing three of four leading scorers from an NCAA tournament team hurts. But that’s what we’re able to say we’re dealing with now: an NCAA tournament team. It feels good to say that, doesn’t it? 

This time last year, the general media consensus was that South Carolina would be the worst team in the conference. Then, they went out and won 13 conference games. It would feel dumb to make that same mistake again, but it appears the national media members seem intent on doing so. In the opinion of yours truly, there is really no option other than to trust Lamont Paris. He again brought in players to fit his schemes, and kept (within eligibility limits) the players best at executing those schemes on the roster. As long as Lamont Paris is the X-and-O specialist along the sideline with a team curated by his doings, there’s not a reason to exclude these Gamecocks from the tournament picture, and that includes this upcoming season.