South Carolina Basketball: Gamecock assistant leaving the program

South Carolina basketball coach Lamont Paris is losing one member of his coaching staff as veteran assistant Tim Buckley is leaving the program to take an assistant coaching gig with the Cincinnati Bearcats basketball team under head coach Wes Miller.

The news about Buckley's departure had been rumored around Cincinnati basketball circles since Tuesday, but a report from The Big Spur's John Whittle confirmed that those rumors were accurate and Buckley, indeed, was leaving Columbia.

Buckley, who was a former head coach at Ball State and Rockford College and an NBA scout for the Minnesota Timberwolves organization, spent most of his 38-year career in basketball as an assistant coach. He had stops as an assistant at Bemidji State, Rockford College, Wisconsin, Ball State, Iowa, Marquette (twice), Indiana, and UNLV prior to joining the South Carolina basketball program.

Now, with the eldest coach on staff no longer around, Lamont Paris will have a vacancy to fill alongside assistant coaches Eddie Shannon, Tanner Bronson, and David McKinley.

The NCAA recently allowed a fourth assistant coach to be hired on every college basketball staff, but one assistant cannot recruit away from campus. It is unclear at this point if that fourth assistant (McKinley) will be promoted to take Buckley's spot and have his spot replaced by a new coach, or if Paris will bring in a coach to fill Buckley's role in a more direct way.

The Gamecocks are in pursuit of their first back-to-back trips to the NCAA Tournament since the 1996-1997 and 1997-1998 South Carolina basketball teams were seeded as a top-3 seed both seasons.

USC also does not have a full roster right now as Trent Noah's defection to the rival Kentucky Wildcats left the team with one scholarship opening. Paris and the Gamecocks have been involved with at least one big name in the recruiting world since that time and have received a commitment from class of 2025 4-star EJ Walker.