Lamont Paris explains going with small lineup to start Auburn game

Lamont Paris and South Carolina tried to catch Auburn slipping with a smaller lineup to start their showdown on Saturday, but nothing went the Gamecocks way.

It all amounted to a 81-66 loss for the Gamecocks at home. Now 8-11 and 1-5 against the SEC, it’s a less than ideal start for Paris and company. Regardless, the South Carolina leader spoke about his decision to switch things up afterwards, even if it didn’t bring the results he had hoped for.

“Honestly one of the first times that they threw it to him, Hayden [Brown] did a good job in the post and we ended up getting a turnover. It wasn’t just that Hayden got in foul trouble again. One was an offensive foul. That was part of it, that dictated us making a change,” stated Paris. “I knew we were going to do — we were going to play big also. But I did want to start — I thought, from an offensive standpoint, that might allow us to do somethings, having a smaller lineup. It did maybe make us switch one through five. We had some advantages I thought at times. Hayden’s offensive foul that I spoke of, they had switched and it was a guard on him and he put his head down trying to get to the rim. The guy took a charge on him. Versus maybe moving the ball, diving to the basket and taking advantage of your size advantage around the basket. But he was trying to be aggressive, that’s for sure.

“But I think it came down too, we did want to start that way, to try to open some things up offensively. They countered that with switching a lot of things, and then we weren’t as aggressive and we weren’t as smart with our aggression to take advantage of some of those things early.”

Nevertheless, Gregory Jackson II did all he could to bring a victory, putting up 30 points in the loss for the Gamecocks. On the other hand, Auburn’s Johni Broome was equally as effective throughout, putting up 27 points in the victory for the Tigers.

Lamont Paris will keeping trying to find ways to win for South Carolina, but maybe the small-ball starting lineup will stay in the back pocket from now on.