Lamont Paris shares areas South Carolina must focus on during preseason

Few teams showed as remarkable an improvement year over year as Lamont Paris‘ South Carolina squad did during the 2023-24 campaign, going from 11 wins to 26 wins and an NCAA Tournament appearance.

Now Paris is looking to sustain that level of success as he heads into his third year in charge of the program.

To that end, he’s been working with his new-look roster to re-establish the same standards that made last year’s achievements attainable. So far things have been going quite smoothly.

“Really good. I mean some of the stuff is new for guys that haven’t been in our program,” Paris said. “We’re detail-oriented. I think it’s what has helped us achieve some of the things that we have. And even some of the guys that were here last year but were redshirting, for those guys you find yourself more worried about what the other team’s doing when you’re on the scout team than what we’re talking about. So this is the first time for them too.”

A couple key pieces from last year’s team return in guard Myles Stute and forward Collin Murray-Boyles. Murray-Boyles, in particular, was a revelation as a true freshman.

The talented 6-foot-7 standout averaged 10.4 points and 5.7 rebounds per game, getting better and better as the season went on. Stute averaged 8.3 points and 3.3 rebounds.

The Gamecocks have also added talented transfers in the likes of Alabama center Nick Pringle and Missouri forward Jordan Butler.

But one thing that made South Carolina so good was its depth last season. The Gamecocks played seven players for at least 22 minutes per game and 11 players for at least nine minutes per game.

So getting everyone up to speed in the preseason is imperative.

“Just the concept of the difference between winning and losing in so many games this year will come down to something that was really controllable and had really more to do with concentration than anything,” Paris explained. “Just getting guys to start to realize that at an early point.”

That’s the goal as South Carolina enters its preseason training. The season will be here before too long.