Lamont Paris: Kentucky game showed ‘exactly what I want it to look like’
South Carolina got a massive win over Kentucky on Tuesday night. For head coach Lamont Paris, it was a great example of how he wants the Gamecocks to look and play on the court.
After the game, Paris praised how the team played and emphasized that South Carolina is capable of playing like that again.
“I think that is exactly what I want it to look like,” Lamont Paris said. “I think we did things that are reproducible. That was the biggest thing. I think we did stuff that was reproducible. It was within our control, a lot of it.”
One key aspect of South Carolina’s game was how the Gamecocks played defense. As a team, they held the Wildcats to just 62 points after Kentucky entered the game averaging 91.6 points per game.
“They took and made some tough shots, but someone asked me a question before about the pace of the game, and I said, ‘The biggest difference that you’ll notice in the pace of the game, if it’s really going the way that I want it to, is that they will have to spend more time searching for a shot that they like,’ and I think that’s what happened for the most part,” Paris said. “Either that or you’ll early and it’ll be a kind of shot that we’re kind of willing to concede that you’re gonna shoot that one.”
On the other side of the ball, Lamont Paris was happy with the style and approach that the Gamecocks took.
“So, I think it bore out that way that that’s what we did, but certainly when you talk about sharing the ball, moving the ball, we didn’t get a great situation but we moved the ball. The ball was popping. I just thought the ball was moving all over the place out there and that was good for us on the offensive end. So, those are my two basic philosophies,” Paris said.
“Offensively, get it moving. I like guys that can do a little something around the basket, they can make threes. Everybody knows that. Get the ball popping. The rest will take care of itself. Make some good decisions, and then you’ve got to play your rear end off on the defensive end, which these guys did.”
Lamont Paris on South Carolina’s success
From year one to year two, South Carolina has taken massive strides under Lamont Paris. Now, sitting at 16-3 with an upset win over Kentucky, Paris reflected on what he would have thought last season if he could see them now.
“I would’ve probably said, ‘Where are we ranked?’ I’m kidding. That’s a sideways statement but I don’t ever look at things in a way that, we were and are still focused on getting better, being better, and building,” Lamont Paris said. “That’s my job is to build something that we can reproduce over and over again. That’s what I’ve done in my career, that’s where I’ve been. And I know what those results look like. So, that was our mission was to continue to build this year, and we’ve done that.”
As Paris explained, it comes down to the culture that he’s been building at South Carolina.
“When I look at our culture, when I look at the character of the human beings that I have in my locker room, we have built, we have built. And then they are also good basketball players. They’re also incredible competitors, they also get along well. They also all these other things. But we were focused on building. And we have done that, we’ll continue to do that,” Paris said.
“It’s a good team. We have a lot of work to do. It’s a fun game, this game, but we have a lot more and we haven’t really done anything. A lot of people are surprised. Maybe we’ve got a couple guys a little surprised themselves that you go out there and you’re up 20 almost at one point. But again, we’re just really focused on just getting better and seeing if we can achieve, get as close as we can to our ceiling. That is the main mission is to see how close to our ceiling as a unit can we possibly get?”