Lamont Paris explains why South Carolina looks to spread load across so many players

The South Carolina basketball team has won 10 of its last 12 games and has quietly positioned itself right near the top of the SEC standings. One of the chief reasons?

Just about anyone can go off for the Gamecocks on any given night.

“Our team has never been built on one player having to do something crazy every game,” coach Lamont Paris said. “One, I don’t think it’s reproduceable or sustainable, so we’ve got a lot of guys. Ta’Lon (Cooper) had 20 in the last game. BJ (Mack)‘s had multiple games. Like I said, Zach (Davis) in the first game he started had 14.”

The thing that’s impressive about South Carolina is just how deep the bench goes. Meechie Johnson is the team’s leading scorer at 15.7 points per game, but the Gamecocks have only two other double-figure scorers.

The rest is supplemented by an array of players.

“We’ve got a lot of guys that can do something, that can make a play, that can make a shot,” Paris said. “And it’s nice to be able to have that, because one thing it does it takes pressure off of guys that, there’s a lot of pressure on these guys, trust me. And then between social media and all the information that’s out there on each one of these guys, they put some pressure on themselves.”

South Carolina will get a chance to rack up another marquee win on Tuesday against No. 5 Tennessee, just a week removed from a similarly big win over No. 6 Kentucky.

Not much needs to change for the Gamecocks.

“They’re winning, they want to continue winning,” Paris said. “So it alleviates a lot of pressure when you have multiple people on a team that can produce and we can still play the way that we want to play without, you know, Myles Stute has been out. We’ve got a few really good wins without Myles Stute. He’s a key cog for us in what we do.

“But it’s just nice to be able to know you can have Morris (Ugusuk) comes in and gets double-figures today in a game where a couple guys couldn’t make shots. That’s a luxury to be able to have that kind of depth.”

Ugusuk did indeed score double figures in a win over Missouri, scoring 10 points. It was only the second time all year he’s been in double figures.

But that’s just kind of who South Carolina is. You never know where the threat is coming from on any given night.

Tennessee will get its chance to take on the well-rounded squad on Tuesday in a game that tips off at 6:30 p.m. ET in Knoxville, Tenn.