Everything Lamont Paris said after South Carolina's 73-64 loss to Georgia on Tuesday

Following a 73-64 loss to Georgia on Tuesday night, South Carolina head coach Lamont Paris met with the media after the game. Here’s everything he had to say.

Opening statement

“Well, I thought we were better defensively in the second half. Our recipe for winning typically doesn’t involve 40 points in a half typically. I mean, I don’t know if many people’s does, but ours certainly does not. And so we dug a hole that way, and thought the guys did a good job fighting in the second half, and we cut the lead down to two. I think we gave up an offensive rebound in that possession. We had it at four again after a timeout, and we gave up a layup on that one. So we had a couple of moments that were real moments that were chances for us to do something defensively and really put ourselves in a position to take the lead. And so we didn’t handle those situations great, but they have a good team.

“They’re extremely competitive. I mean, they really compete. That’s a word everyone uses, but that team competes. Particularly a couple of their individuals really compete. And it’s hard to describe what that means, but it’s not just going out and playing against the other team, but they really competed. And I thought that was the difference in a lot of these things for rebounds, loose balls, stuff like that. They imposed their will, trying to get to the basket at times when we were in a decent position.

“But our effort was good. The guys wanted to win. We made a nice run there in the second half, just weren’t able to take the lead. I think if you get in a game like that, once you take the lead, think mentally that’s that’s a huge hurdle to overcome, and confidence starts to soar.”

Lamont, final home game of the season. How did you think the guys handled the hoopla of Senior Night? Do you think that might have contributed anything to the early hole?

“No, I don’t think so. I mean, it’s hard to tell what’s in these guys’ minds, but I don’t think so. I don’t think anyone was uptight. I don’t think anyone felt like they had to overdo it today. Again, I’m not in their minds. Maybe somebody was thinking that they needed to try to get their career high today. But that’s typically not been the makeup of these guys. I don’t know that I’d make any correlation between those two things, but I thought they handled it well. And at some point, really quickly into the game, got completely immersed in the game itself and trying to win the game.”

What does Georgia do defensively that you think maybe gave you guys the most trouble tonight when it came to scoring in the paint?

“Yeah, they crowded the paint and rotated well out of it. It’s harder when a team does that to play without having four guys at least on the floor that can make threes. It’s harder. It’s not impossible. That’s for sure. You can get some advantages from a rebounding standpoint at times if you’re strong with the ball. But it was crowded in there, and it was hard for us to make the reads and the decisions in that crowd that we needed to.

“But I thought we did a couple of good things, collapsing the defense and then kicking out for perimeter shots. We did that a couple of times, one by way of the post-feed. We did it off the dribble, off the dribble drive. I know right in front of their bench, we had a kick out for a three, but we didn’t stay committed to that as much as we had. Also times where we attacked, collapsed the defense, and then we tried to challenge the defense in a one one-on-one, or one one-on-two, or one one-on-one, where I’m 6’1″ and their guy is a lot taller than that. Those can be hard situations, so we’ll watch that and see what that was. But I think they were committed to crowding the paint and making you kick out, and we did a couple times but not consistently enough.”

You mentioned that giving up 40 points in the first half isn’t the recipe you guys have for success. What was it that you guys were doing defensively that maybe allowed Georgia to get that many points in the first half?

“I think our general activity and energy could have been a little bit better in the first half, but I’m also realistic. They had some guys make some hard shots. I mean, a couple of guys made midies, as they call them, from the baseline — challenged midies. There were at least two of those. Somto (Cyril) made a really contested hook that wasn’t right at the rim. And then they had another guy make a hook from right towards the end of the first half, almost near the free-throw line. So, I mean, that’s eight points right there that easily could not go in. That’s on top of anything that we did that just was an error on our part, on a rule, or just a breakdown individually. So there were probably some of those.

“They spun on around us one time. Jordan Butler gave up a layup on the guy who spun right around for a layup. I’d like to have that play over. He probably doesn’t finish that way. Maybe he still scores; maybe he doesn’t. So I think that was a small part of it was tough shot making, and then that was combined with a couple of things that we did. Like I mentioned, that Jordan play, and there were probably three of those also in the first half. And while three doesn’t sound like a big number, you combine that with a couple of tough shots, and now you got seven plays that went against you times two or more, at least 14 points.”

With Tennessee on Saturday, will you guys just stay there and then go to Nashville, or will you come back here in between?

“I don’t think so. I think we’re coming back here. I don’t know what tomorrow is. I mean, I listen to Colby Arendale, and he tells me exactly what I’m doing most days. So I think we’re coming back here, though. I think that’s the plan.”

With Myles Stute, what is the process for him, maybe potentially getting another year medically?

“It’s unfortunate how it shook out for Myles. Such a great young man, and he’s such a dedicated worker to the game of basketball. I mean, extremely dedicated to this game. So I think I’ve been told they have filed all the necessary paperwork in order to apply for a waiver to get the year back. And so I don’t know.

“I think mathematically, probably on the number of games he’s played, it may end up over, but who knows what’s going on with the NCAA. There’s been a lot of leniency in these areas. I’m hopeful, I hope it happens for a lot of reasons. He’s a good player. He can help our team, but, selfishly, I also like being around the guy, so I hope it happens for him. But I guess we just have to be patient and see what that process looks like.”

Along the same lines, what will your conversations be like with Nick Pringle as he tries to decide on his future?

“Usually, the season ends, and then we have a meeting with each player individually. They used to be, maybe, a day or two. Now they’ll be immediately. I mean, as soon as we get back here, we’ll start doing that and just kind of trying to lay out what the foundation of next year’s roster would look like. And then, making some moves, transactions it almost feels like, but making some moves after that.

“We do that with every single player; that’s kind of how it goes. And I’m not a high-pressure guy, these kids have a lot of options. Life’s different than it was in the Stone Ages, but they have a lot of options. But I like Nick. I’ve enjoyed coaching Nick as well as a bunch of other guys. So we’ll just have meetings like normal when the season’s over, and we’ll make the best decisions for everyone involved.”

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