I don’t feel like this team improved much throughout the year.

[18IsTheMan]

We actually seemed to play our worst ball down the stretch, with five of our eight losses coming in the last 5 weeks.

Our big game performances also leave something to be desired. Yes, we showed up in a big way against Kentucky and then Tennessee, but we feel horribly flat and looked completely unprepared and out of our depth against Alabama, Auburn twice, and then Oregon.

Paris did a great job getting the wins he did out of this squad, but the manner in which the season ended, with back-to back ugly losses in which we looked woefully outmatched, leaves a few question marks lingering.

Yes, we overachieved based on preseason expectations, but you can’t play that card forever. And with how the three times SEC has looked so far in the tournament, that doesn’t seem as impressive as it once did.

 

[Evilchicken]

What question marks? This team was mediocre from the get go, but Paris got them to overachieve. The older players were a hodge podge of portal gumbo, and CMB came on late, but he’s young and inconsistent. The games where we got exposed showed just how lackluster our shooting was, and that we couldn’t hang with taller athletic teams.

 

[Evilchicken]

It’s funny that we all said Carolina was getting no respect despite the 26 wins, but I’m telling you…bettors know.

 

[will110]

We actually seemed to play our worst ball down the stretch, with five of our eight losses coming in the last 5 weeks.

Our big game performances also leave something to be desired. Yes, we showed up in a big way against Kentucky and then Tennessee, but we feel horribly flat and looked completely unprepared and out of our depth against Alabama, Auburn twice, and then Oregon.

Paris did a great job getting the wins he did out of this squad, but the manner in which the season ended, with back-to back ugly losses in which we looked woefully outmatched, leaves a few question marks lingering.

Yes, we overachieved based on preseason expectations, but you can’t play that card forever. And with how the three times SEC has looked so far in the tournament, that doesn’t seem as impressive as it once did.

Come on, man.

This team was predicted to finish last in the SEC in year 2 of this coaching staff. Not only did Paris exceed expectations, he obliterated expectations. There weren't any fans predicting that this team would make the tournament in October. There weren't any fans predicting that this team would be one game away from outright winning the SEC championship.

Obviously if it's year 5 and we get picked to finish last, then there's a problem and you can't hang your hat on exceeding expectations.

This was supposed to be a rebuilding year, but instead it was one of the best seasons in Carolina basketball history.

 

[18IsTheMan]

Come on, man.

This team was predicted to finish last in the SEC in year 2 of this coaching staff. Not only did Paris exceed expectations, he obliterated expectations. There weren't any fans predicting that this team would make the tournament in October. There weren't any fans predicting that this team would be one game away from outright winning the SEC championship.

Obviously if it's year 5 and we get picked to finish last, then there's a problem and you can't hang your hat on exceeding expectations.

This was supposed to be a rebuilding year, but instead it was one of the best seasons in Carolina basketball history.

I guess typical for Carolina fans. We are reduced to celebrating “one of the best years in our history” that involved two miserably disappointing losses to end the season, one of which involved getting rung up for a career high by a former gamecock player.

yes, I enjoyed the regular season immensely, but in college basketball it’s really about the tournament.

 

[will110]

I guess typical for Carolina fans. We are reduced to celebrating “one of the best years in our history” that involved two miserably disappointing losses to end the season, one of which involved getting rung up for a career high by a former gamecock player.

yes, I enjoyed the regular season immensely, but in college basketball it’s really about the tournament.

It seems typical for some Carolina fans to look for reasons to nitpick and denigrate success, instead of celebrating literally one of the best years in school history.

We just made the tournament for the 10th time in school history. That's ten total tournament appearances in 116 basketball seasons. We just made the tournament for the 3rd time this millennium. That's progress. That's a hugely successful season in year 2 of the Lamont Paris tenure.

So sure, you can look at one game and say that the future isn't very bright. Or you can look at the overwhelming positives here and be excited for 24-25 and what Paris can do next, with this successful season to recruit the portal and high school ranks with.

 

[18IsTheMan]

It seems typical for some Carolina fans to look for reasons to nitpick and denigrate success, instead of celebrating literally one of the best years in school history.

We just made the tournament for the 10th time in school history. That's ten total tournament appearances in 116 basketball seasons. We just made the tournament for the 3rd time this millennium. That's progress. That's a hugely successful season in year 2 of the Lamont Paris tenure.

So sure, you can look at one game and say that the future isn't very bright. Or you can look at the overwhelming positives here and be excited for 24-25 and what Paris can do next, with this successful season to recruit the portal and high school ranks with.

I didn’t say the future isn’t bright.

It’s just Carolina sports. We make the SECCG in football and what happens? Worst loss in SECCG history.

We go on a magical run to make the final four, and what happens? We lose a game we probably would’ve won if Sindarius was healthy. And, if he had been healthy, with how we were playing, we likely challenge for the title that year.

We make the NCAA tournament in a year in which we were picked to finish last in our conference, and what happens? We fall completely flat and give up a career high points to a former gamecock player.

I could go on, but you get the picture. I don’t know why I expected anything different this time.

 

[18IsTheMan]

It’s funny that we all said Carolina was getting no respect despite the 26 wins, but I’m telling you…bettors know.

I suppose we succeeded in proving to the world that we weren’t a 6 seed.

 

[Big JC]

I didn’t say the future isn’t bright.

It’s just Carolina sports. We make the SECCG in football and what happens? Worst loss in SECCG history.

We go on a magical run to make the final four, and what happens? We lose a game we probably would’ve won if Sindarius was healthy. And, if he had been healthy, with how we were playing, we likely challenge for the title that year.

We make the NCAA tournament in a year in which we were picked to finish last in our conference, and what happens? We fall completely flat and give up a career high points to a former gamecock player.

I could go on, but you get the picture. I don’t know why I expected anything different this time.

The Chicken Curse lives.

 

[gamecock stock]

It seems typical for some Carolina fans to look for reasons to nitpick and denigrate success, instead of celebrating literally one of the best years in school history.

We just made the tournament for the 10th time in school history. That's ten total tournament appearances in 116 basketball seasons. We just made the tournament for the 3rd time this millennium. That's progress. That's a hugely successful season in year 2 of the Lamont Paris tenure.

So sure, you can look at one game and say that the future isn't very bright. Or you can look at the overwhelming positives here and be excited for 24-25 and what Paris can do next, with this successful season to recruit the portal and high school ranks with.

This is how I see it: Tennessee and Auburn are probably the 2 best teams in the SEC this year. They potentially (NOT SAYING IT WILL HAPPEN) could make it to the Final Four.

After 2 seasons, Bruce Pearl, Rick Barnes and Lamont Paris at Auburn, Tennessee and South Carolina respectively did the following:
Then 56 year-old Bruce Pearl's record was 26-40 (9-27 in the SEC) finishing 13th in the conference both seasons and did not make any post-season tournament.
Then 62 year-old Rick Barnes' record was 31-35 (14-22 in the SEC) finishing 12th and 9th in the conference and did not make any post-season tournament.
49 year-old Lamont Paris' record is 37-29 (17-19 in the SEC) finishing 12th and tied for 2nd in the conference and did make THE NCAA Tournament in his 2nd season.

I will repeat (and do believe) what I said after the regular season: South Carolina men's basketball is in good hands with Lamont Paris for the future.

If anyone wants to cry and whine regarding the end of the season, that's their right as a fan.

 

[Lurker123]

Both sides are right here. It was one of our beat seasons, and it sputtered and stalled to a disappointing ending.

The gamecock way.

I admit I don't follow basketball closely, but I would feel better about our future now than any time in the last few years, right?

 

[gamecock stock]

Both sides are right here. It was one of our beat seasons, and it sputtered and stalled to a disappointing ending.

The gamecock way.

I admit I don't follow basketball closely, but I would feel better about our future now than any time in the last few years, right?

I hope we can say the same, regarding our football future, this time next year.

 

[Prestonyte]

Disappointing ending yes, but it very well could have been disappointing from the beginning and all season long. But it wasn't.
I think LP is a bright young coach with a future and we are lucky to have him.
He's built a foundation to do some great things and I like the way he handles himself and represents the university.
Let's wait and see if he delivers.

 

[Cybercock]

I guess typical for Carolina fans. We are reduced to celebrating “one of the best years in our history” that involved two miserably disappointing losses to end the season, one of which involved getting rung up for a career high by a former gamecock player.

yes, I enjoyed the regular season immensely, but in college basketball it’s really about the tournament.

If success is based only on winning the tournament, then all teams but one will have unsuccessful years.

 

[will110]

I suppose we succeeded in proving to the world that we weren’t a 6 seed.

If that's the thought process, then so did Texas Tech and BYU, I guess. Kentucky proved they weren't a 3 seed. Kansas proved they weren't a 4 seed by barely beating Samford.

Upsets are a part of the tournament. One game's result doesn't undo the season's accomplishments.

 

[will110]

Both sides are right here. It was one of our beat seasons, and it sputtered and stalled to a disappointing ending.

The gamecock way.

I admit I don't follow basketball closely, but I would feel better about our future now than any time in the last few years, right?

To your second point, absolutely. The future is brighter today than it's been since at least 2017.

While losing in the first round was a disappointment, and losing like we did (again) to Auburn was also disappointing, characterizing the end of the season as sputtering and stalling seems overly harsh in my opinion. We made the tournament and ran into a buzzsaw that had gotten really hot at the right time. The tournament is just a different animal where anything can happen.

 

[18IsTheMan]

If that's the thought process, then so did Texas Tech and BYU, I guess. Kentucky proved they weren't a 3 seed. Kansas proved they weren't a 4 seed by barely beating Samford.

Upsets are a part of the tournament. One game's result doesn't undo the season's accomplishments.

Well, it wasn’t an upset because Oregon was favored.

And I’m not so bothered that we lost. It’s that we laid a total egg two big games in a row. I mean we got obliterated by Auburn by 41 points in our first game. Second game, was essentially a carbon copy of the first game. I get that they’re just a better team than us, but we seemingly didn’t change anything or do anything different. We considered ourselves a solid tournament team while Oregon would not have even been in the tournament if they had not won their conference tournament and they handled us no problem.

it is what it is. I’ve been around long enough to know how things go, I just got kind of caught up in the excitement of everything and thought things might go different this time.

 

[USCEE82]

It's not that I'm ungrateful for a good season, it's that I realize how rare our trips to the NCAAT are. I want us to make some noise when we get there and not get embarrassed by a lower seed in the first round. This is getting to be a pattern that the media will remind everyone of every time we make the tournament. The future may be bright, but I'm old and have health issues so I want to win now!

 

[Blues man]

I suppose we succeeded in proving to the world that we weren’t a 6 seed.

That's the spirit

 

[gamecock stock]

To your second point, absolutely. The future is brighter today than it's been since at least 2017.

While losing in the first round was a disappointment, and losing like we did (again) to Auburn was also disappointing, characterizing the end of the season as sputtering and stalling seems overly harsh in my opinion. We made the tournament and ran into a buzzsaw that had gotten really hot at the right time. The tournament is just a different animal where anything can happen.

As I recall looking at the conference schedule down the stretch, I remember thinking that it was more difficult than in the beginning and mid year. Thus, we obviously would not look as good towards the end.

 

[18IsTheMan]

It's not that I'm ungrateful for a good season, it's that I realize how rare our trips to the NCAAT are. I want us to make some noise when we get there and not get embarrassed by a lower seed in the first round. This is getting to be a pattern that the media will remind everyone of every time we make the tournament. The future may be bright, but I'm old and have health issues so I want to win now!

My only gripe is that we face-planted to end the season.

 

[Cybercock]

Being disappointed is expected but not a measure of success.
If everyone won, what fun would sports be?

 

[18IsTheMan]

Being disappointed is expected but not a measure of success.
If everyone won, what fun would sports be?

Ahhh, so we serve an essential function to the world of sports!

 

[BftCocks09]

We actually seemed to play our worst ball down the stretch, with five of our eight losses coming in the last 5 weeks.

Our big game performances also leave something to be desired. Yes, we showed up in a big way against Kentucky and then Tennessee, but we feel horribly flat and looked completely unprepared and out of our depth against Alabama, Auburn twice, and then Oregon.

Paris did a great job getting the wins he did out of this squad, but the manner in which the season ended, with back-to back ugly losses in which we looked woefully outmatched, leaves a few question marks lingering.

Yes, we overachieved based on preseason expectations, but you can’t play that card forever. And with how the three times SEC has looked so far in the tournament, that doesn’t seem as impressive as it once did.

I don’t understand why you’re equating many fans saying this season was a resounding success with playing the exceeded expectations card “forever.” Is it not reasonable to say this season can be considered extremely successful based on expectations while also expecting improvement as we move forward? Would you really consider that sunshine pumping?

 

[18IsTheMan]

I don’t understand why you’re equating many fans saying this season was a resounding success with playing the exceeded expectations card “forever.” Is it not reasonable to say this season can be considered extremely successful based on expectations while also expecting improvement as we move forward? Would you really consider that sunshine pumping?

I’m just saying that as the season goes on you can’t keep playing the exceeding expectations card. Eventually you just have expectations.

 

[gamecock stock]

I’m just saying that as the season goes on you can’t keep playing the exceeding expectations card. Eventually you just have expectations.

Am I happy where the season ended at The Big Dance? No, of course not. But I am happy that we made it to there, regardless of any expectations, since it had been 7 years from our previous time there. It took even Dawn Staley 4 seasons to get to the women's Big Dance. Yes, I would have loved to see us get the chance to play Creighton. I am reminded, though, of an old Chinese proverb: "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step". I look forward to resuming the journey next season.

 

[Big JC]

Successful season, disappointing end.

 

[18IsTheMan]

Successful season, disappointing end.

I wouldn’t have too much of a problem with how the season ended except we totally faceplanted. Twice.

 

[adcoop]

I wouldn’t have too much of a problem with how the season ended except we totally faceplanted. Twice.

We faceplanted because we reached our ceiling. I think many people looked at our record instead of the components of the team and thought we were better than what we were. We had a high school PF play PG for us alongside 2 undersized post players and had a home game against Tennessee to possibly win the conference. This wasn’t exceeding expectations. It was obliterating them. The fans that are really into basketball knew. Most people I talked to had us losing to Oregon. Now, we recruit and get better.

 

[gamecock stock]

This wasn’t exceeding expectations. It was obliterating them.

Well said.

 

[BftCocks09]

I’m just saying that as the season goes on you can’t keep playing the exceeding expectations card. Eventually you just have expectations.

How does one speak of exceeding expectations unless they look at the season as whole?

 

[18IsTheMan]

We faceplanted because we reached our ceiling. I think many people looked at our record instead of the components of the team and thought we were better than what we were. We had a high school PF play PG for us alongside 2 undersized post players and had a home game against Tennessee to possibly win the conference. This wasn’t exceeding expectations. It was obliterating them. The fans that are really into basketball knew. Most people I talked to had us losing to Oregon. Now, we recruit and get better.

Expectations changed as the season progressed. Obviously. Just because people thought we would be awful doesn’t mean those expectations remained in place for the duration of the season .

 

[Uscg1984]

Expectations changed as the season progressed. Obviously. Just because people thought we would be awful doesn’t mean those expectations remained in place for the duration of the season .

This is true.

Like many threads in this forum, this feels like another one that devolves into a binary argument. You are either thrilled with the season or you think it was a major disappointment. There is a middle ground where we can acknowledge that this team was MUCH better than anyone expected, but also acknowledge that it ended with a thud. Expectations are dynamic.

Where do we go from here? What are the expectations for next season? Since we were expected to finish last in the conference this season, do we conclude that next year will be a success if we finish in the middle of the pack of the SEC? Or do we alter our expectations and conclude that if we were able to finish tied for 2nd this season, with this group of personnel, then we should finish at least that high next year with (hopefully) improved personnel?

 

[gamecock stock]

This is true.

Like many threads in this forum, this feels like another one that devolves into a binary argument. You are either thrilled with the season or you think it was a major disappointment. There is a middle ground where we can acknowledge that this team was MUCH better than anyone expected, but also acknowledge that it ended with a thud. Expectations are dynamic.

Where do we go from here? What are the expectations for next season? Since we were expected to finish last in the conference this season, do we conclude that next year will be a success if we finish in the middle of the pack of the SEC? Or do we alter our expectations and conclude that if we were able to finish tied for 2nd this season, with this group of personnel, then we should finish at least that high next year with (hopefully) improved personnel?

 

[Sweetwatergolf]

I wouldn’t have too much of a problem with how the season ended except we totally faceplanted. Twice.

Ok, we get your faceplate point. No need to post it a 3rd time.

 

[gamecock stock]

Like many threads in this forum, this feels like another one that devolves into a binary argument. You are either thrilled with the season or you think it was a major disappointment. There is a middle ground where we can acknowledge that this team was MUCH better than anyone expected, but also acknowledge that it ended with a thud. Expectations are dynamic.

I believe I took your approach when I said I was not happy how the season ended. But looking at the season as a whole, there's no doubt Paris, as adcoop above said, "obliterated" expectations that people had in the pre-season or as you put it, "this team was MUCH better than anyone expected". And if anyone doubts the job that Lamont Paris did, then they need to look up who was chosen Coach Of The Year by the National Association of Basketball Coaches and who is a semifinalist for the Naismith Men's College Coach of the Year. Those honors don't go to "trash" coaches. When you add that to what he was able to do in his first season here after having lost about 75% of the previous year's players due to graduation and/or transfer, what he accomplished in his first Head Coaching job at Chattanooga and, prior to that, being an assistant to the great Bo Ryan at Wisconsin, it's hard to deny that we are VERY lucky that Lamont Paris is our Head Basketball Coach.

 

[Uscg1984]

I believe I took your approach when I said I was not happy how the season ended. But looking at the season as a whole, there's no doubt Paris, as adcoop above said, "obliterated" expectations that people had in the pre-season or as you put it, "this team was MUCH better than anyone expected". And if anyone doubts the job that Lamont Paris did, then they need to look up who was chosen Coach Of The Year by the National Association of Basketball Coaches and who is a semifinalist for the Naismith Men's College Coach of the Year. Those honors don't go to "trash" coaches. When you add that to what he was able to do in his first season here after having lost about 75% of the previous year's players due to graduation and/or transfer, what he accomplished in his first Head Coaching job at Chattanooga and, prior to that, being an assistant to the great Bo Ryan at Wisconsin, it's hard to deny that we are VERY lucky that Lamont Paris is our Head Basketball Coach.

Fair points all around. But who called him a "trash coach?" If I somehow overlooked somebody saying that, then my bad.

 

[gamecock stock]

Fair points all around. But who called him a "trash coach?" If I somehow overlooked somebody saying that, then my bad.

Oh no one did. I was just trying to make a point that he did a helluva job this year, as reflected by those honors.

 

[adcoop]

Expectations changed as the season progressed. Obviously. Just because people thought we would be awful doesn’t mean those expectations remained in place for the duration of the season .

Not for me. I was waiting for the Cinderella shoe to fall off. If you line up our players talent for talent, it was reasonable for the media to predict us last in the conference. Our talent didn’t get better, the results did. If you know that, you are thinking “this can’t continue”. We took all the way through the regular season and just reached better teams. Now we know, the SEC was very overrated. With all that, it set the stage for a veteran team that was well coached to over-achieve. if you have played basketball enough to size up rosters, you could see we were in trouble with Oregon after the first five minutes.

 

[Uscg1984]

Oh no one did. I was just trying to make a point that he did a helluva job this year, as reflected by those honors.

OK, well, that's an example of the type of straw-man binary arguments I was talking about in the earlier post. I think we all agree that Paris did an incredible job this year and earned his SEC COTY award and any other nation COTY he gets. I think it's fair to say that the relative levels of disappointment we all have about the way the season ended varies. For posters like @18IsTheMan (and myself, to some extent) that hard landing at the end probably tarnishes their overall assessment of the season a bit more than it does for you - and that's OK - but it doesnt mean we're in doubt that Paris did an incredible job with what he had.