Turning page after loss to Oregon, South Carolina basketball has new expectations
Lamont Paris found the nearest chair. Not 40 minutes after the buzzer sounded on South Carolina’s season, the Gamecocks head coach walked off the press conference podium, headed into the locker room and turned into a dingy room labeled “Office.”
He sat on a black folding chair next to a wooden table in a white-walled concrete room, and faced the opening. Until someone knocked on the door, his face did not move. He sat alone, staring down at his phone, just scrolling.
As South Carolina players and staffers and media shuffled past his door, they turned their head and saw Paris sitting there. He never flinched. He just kept scrolling. Perhaps he was finally getting around to the unread texts that had piled up in his phone. Last week, the number was well over 1,000. By the time he walked off the court after the Gamecocks’ 87-73 loss to Oregon, it might have doubled.
Paris is a man with very few hobbies. If he had any, his players weren’t aware. Recently, a South Carolina alum described Paris as “200% basketball.” So perhaps he was watching film, beating himself up after being outcoached by the veteran on the opposite bench.
Oregon coach Dana Altman, who is 8 for 8 in the NCAA Tournament first round with the Ducks, was coaching in his 15th NCAA Tournament as a head coach. Paris was on the bench for just his second.
It showed. Altman’s team took the court as the aggressors. Confident. Poised. They looked ready for the moment. And the Gamecocks looked, well, flat. They looked frazzled, rattled, always a step behind. At one point guard Meechie Johnson, who scored a team-high 24 points, nearly chucked a five-foot pass to Zachary Davis into the stands.
It might have been because Altman outmaneuvered Paris, putting his defense in a zone defense that was not just hard to beat, but took time to decipher.
“Their defense was definitely a little tricky, if I’m being honest,” said Johnson. “Sometimes you didn’t know if they were in a zone or in a man.”
“Their zone really shocked us,” added forward Collin Murray-Boyles. “It was a 2-3 matchup zone. After a couple cuts here and there, we started getting stagnant, then tried to go one-on-one and sometimes we didn’t really get the best shot.”
And the Gamecocks did not just lose to a zone defense, they lost to a defector. Four days ago, when Jermaine Couisnard’s parents watched the Selection Show, “We knew how it was gonna go,” said Couisnard’s father, also named Jermaine Couisnard.
Couisnard, who transferred from South Carolina to Oregon after coach Frank Martin was fired, piled on a career-high 40 points on Thursday. And not just a 40-burger. An efficient 40-burger. He hit 14 of his 22 shots and went 5 for 9 from deep.
“We knew it was personal,” Couisnard’s mother, Raven, told The State before predicting a Sweet Sixteen run. “We’re in Detroit next week.”
Meanwhile, Paris and his squad will be back in Columbia, perhaps toiling so a fate like Thursday doesn’t occur in 2025. The Gamecocks will lose starters B.J. Mack and Ta’Lon Cooper. Johnson will have to make a decision whether he returns or begins his professional career.
In any case, the Gamecocks will not begin next season without any expectations. Paris will not be able to take the podium at SEC Media Days and begin a rallying cry about being picked to finish last in the SEC media poll. He will not be asked about being the lowest paid coach in the SEC. He will not be asked about taking other jobs.
He will now be asked about how he’s going to win an NCAA Tournament game. How he’s going to turn Murray-Boyles from a freshman with upside to one of the best bigs in the country. How he’s going to replicate his success in the transfer portal. What he is doing to ensure that 2023 does not turn into 2017: a blip of success amidst season after season of disappointment.
And if you think it can’t go south in a hurry, look at Missouri. Last season, hotshot coach Dennis Gates guided the Tigers to an NCAA Tournament berth. He got his check and the expectations that come with it. A few months later, Missouri went 0-18 in the SEC.
“We had nine NCAA Tournament appearances in school history before this,” Paris said. “So doing it with a level of consistency has been a challenge, and that will be a challenge for us, too.”
But now there is an understanding of the NCAA Tournament. Of success. Of not having to prove people wrong, but prove them right.
Sitting in his locker after the final game of his freshman season, where he nearly had more fouls (4) than points (6), Murray-Boyles’ eyes were red. He kept talking about the game, about the game plan and everything that went wrong and it was clear he just wanted a re-do. One more chance, knowing what he knows now, to play under the lights again.
Time will tell if he gets the chance again next year. But if he does, “I’ll know what’s at stake,” he said.
