Report: South Carolina to hire Will Bailey as assistant basketball coach

South Carolina head basketball coach Lamont Paris has reportedly filled out his coaching staff. Paris is hiring Loyola Chicago’s Will Bailey as an assistant coach, according to Jon Rothstein.

Bailey is leaving for the Gamecocks after spending only one season at Loyola Chicago. He previously was on staff at Saint Louis. Bailey has also previously worked at La Salle, East Tennessee State, Maine, Chicago State and UAB.

He is joining a South Carolina program that is coming off of an excellent second season under Lamont Paris. The Gamecocks went 26-8 last season, reaching the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2017. South Carolina suffered a disappointing loss to Oregon in the NCAA Tournament. However, overall it was a great year for the Gamecocks.

As for Bailey, he is replacing Tim Buckley, who left for a spot on the Cincinnati coaching staff at the conclusion of the 2023-24 season.

Lamont Paris assesses the challenge of continuing success at South Carolina

Bailey has the task of helping Lamont Paris continue to build the South Carolina program up.

Paris led South Carolina to the most victories in a single season but an early exit at the NCAA Tournament raised questions about continuing the success.

Winning 28 games is not easy, so good luck trying to do that again. The goal for next year? Get back to the NCAA Tournament and see if there’s a run for the Gamecocks. Rosters will change, new players will be in and some will be gone, and South Carolina would love to have a similar level of success in 2025.

“Well, I mean, to replicate the most wins in school history, that’ll be difficult,” Paris said. “We could be significantly better next year and have a worse record. That’s the reality of it. So that’s why you’re always trying to identify the means by which you will gauge success, and it’s not just what the record is. Certainly, ultimately, we’d like to be playing back in this tournament again and put ourselves in position to do that. 

“I think that’s the real challenge. I mean it’s a real challenge. If you look, I think — I don’t think I’m making anything up, but I think we had nine NCAA Tournament appearances in school history before this. So doing it with a level of consistency has been a challenge, and that will be a challenge for us, too.”