Bob Richey: 'Lamont (Paris) is going to do a great job at South Carolina'

Bob Richey grew up in Columbia and knows the South Carolina programs well, so much so he sat in his hotel room Saturday night watching the Gamecocks upset No. 5 Tennessee.

Spending time in Columbia–and spending his entire coaching career in the state–he’s seen the ups and downs of the South Carolina program.

Spending time in the Southern Conference and having to play against Lamont Paris’s Chattanooga teams, he’s seen Paris turn that program from a nine-win team to a 27-win team in just a few years. 

This is why Richey thinks Paris will be successful with the Gamecocks. 

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“Lamont is going to do a great job at South Carolina. He’s just getting started. Nobody wants to hear it in today’s time, but building a program takes time. The easy thing to do is look at it five games in. they got the number one player in the state and country,” Richey said after his Furman team beat South Carolina Sunday morning. 

“I grew up in Columbia. Usually, when they do that it’s a Clowney or a Derek Watson. This happened in basketball. Lamont and his staff know what they’re doing. But this thing is going to take a little time.” 

Richey also understands building a program as an assistant under Niko Medved, inheriting a Furman program that won seven games in 2013. 

After a few lean years–the Paladins won 20 combined games in two seasons–Furman won 42 games in Medved’s final two years and have won at least 23 games in four of the last five seasons under Richey. 

Paris inherited a situation where he lost nearly all of the Gamecocks’ production from last year and brought in nearly an entirely new roster. 

“It’s not something that will happen over time if you want to sustain it. The biggest question in college athletics is do you want to build a team or build a program? The answer in the world right now is to build a team and survive and advance,” Richey said. 

“But as supporters, we all want a sustainable program but don’t have the patience to be able to get to that sustainable model. That takes layers of building. That takes cornerstones…Lamont’s done it before. Lamont built Chattanooga. I saw it firsthand. You guys are in great hands. It’s going to take time. Those guys are good coaches and built a program before.” 

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Paris was part of a rebuild at Chattanooga, winning 22 games his first two seasons combined. But after that the Mocs won 20 in 2020, 18 in the COVID 2021 season and 27 last season, including a SoCon title over Richey’s Furman team. 

It might take time, but Richey can see something like that happening with Paris at South Carolina. 

“The hardest part of building a program is when you have one bad game there’s an overreaction and there’s a thought we have to do things quicker. Building takes time. You have to be able to lay an identity and the ability to do it,” he said. “This isn’t what fans want to hear: you know what’s the biggest piece to building a program? Adversity and working through adversity. Over time there are these confirmation wins that your players will be able to buy into.”

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The Gamecocks started the season off 2-0, capped with a buzzer-beating win over Clemson. But they’re currently on a three-game skid and went winless in the Charleston Classic with losses to Medved’s Colorado State team, Davidson and Furman. 

South Carolina (2-3) returns home Friday afternoon (4 p.m.) to play USC Upstate. 

“You have to be patient. I’m a patient guy. You have to be demanding, you have to have standards that must be met on a regular basis. Those standards aren’t winning or losing,” Paris said. “We’re still working on some of those things together on a consistent basis.”

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