Lamont Paris addresses sideline situation involving GG Jackson, ‘pushing buttons’

South Carolina freshman GG Jackson made his frustrations clear Tuesday night in a 75-64 loss to Vanderbilt. With his team trailing late, the 6-foot-9 forward was seen sulking on the bench and standing away from his teammates during huddles.

Before the game even ended, Jackson untied his shoelaces and untucked his jersey to seemingly indicate he was done for the day. Gamecocks coach Lamont Paris was asked about Jackson’s behavior in his postgame press conference, but brushed it off and claimed not to notice.

“I didn’t notice any of that, to be honest with you,” he said. “I’m into the game and the five guys that are on the court usually. Occasionally I’ll spend a little bit of time with the guys that are on the bench if something in the game pertains to them. I didn’t notice any of that, but I’m sure he was frustrated. He didn’t play particularly well. It happens to everyone. So I played some guys in the second half. My job ultimately is try to win the basketball game and there’s some buttons I get to push. I don’t get to make layups. I don’t get to pass it to guys. But I do get to push a couple buttons.

“…I thought our best chance at that point was that group that we had that started the half. …Ultimately, that’s what it boiled down to. Guys get frustrated sometimes. Poor play or whatever it is. But frustration is never great for an athlete. Once it sets in, it can be an athlete’s worst enemy.”

Jackson played just 16 minutes in the loss, and his frustrations grew as he saw only four minutes in the second half. He finished the game with two points and one rebound on 1-of-7 shooting.

The decreased playing time for Jackson has been a trend of late. Following an Instagram Live rant in which he called out the Gamecocks coaching staff for not drawing up plays for him in crunch time, he was removed from the starting lineup. Jackson has continued to come off the bench for the past three games, averaging 18.3 minutes.

“I don’t have a lot of conversations with guys about playing time,” Paris said. “Some here and there. Not a ton. I will always play the guys that I think have the best chance to win the game. Usually that comes down to how you’re performing. Sometimes that’s affected by other things that you may have going on. Guys have had some personal things that affected how they play. I’ve seen guys that had a girlfriend that broke up with ’em and it destroyed how they played.

“There are a lot of factors that go into how guys play. The emotional side of things is a real thing for any college-aged kid. Again, once you get frustrated it’s difficult then to play well. No matter how hard you’re trying at that point, it’s difficult to play a good brand of basketball.”

A Columbia native, GG Jackson committed to South Carolina this offseason as the No. 7 overall prospect according to On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average. Prior to his social media rant, he had started every game for the Gamecocks and leads the team with 15.2 points and six rebounds per game.

Despite this, South Carolina (9-17, 2-11 SEC) has struggled and ranks second-to-last in the conference standings. Jackson is still a projected first-round pick according to a recent ESPN mock draft, and he’ll hope to finish the final five games of the regular season strong to send a message to pro scouts.

That begins with a matchup against last-place LSU at 1 p.m. ET on Saturday in Baton Rouge.