Lamont Paris explains why Austin Herro's minutes have been limited this season
South Carolina’s guard situation is less than ideal right now. While being down two starters, including starting point guard Jamarii Thomas for the next few weeks, the Gamecocks have had to resort to other options for the time being.
For the past three games, they’ve run out a starting lineup consisting of three guards with Jacobi Wright, Morris Ugusuk and Zachary Davis, which has produced some success. They’ve even relied on Arden Conyers, who hadn’t played much at all in non-conference, to be on the floor for 27.3 minutes in these last four games.
On Saturday, the latest move to try and fill in the gaps was playing Austin Herro, who hadn’t seen any action in SEC play this season. He most recently came in on Dec. 22 against Radford but has only played four minutes all year.
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Herro checked in with six minutes left to go in the first half against Oklahoma. Three minutes later, he was back on the bench for good, as South Carolina went on to lose its fifth straight game, falling 82-62 to the Sooners.
Given South Carolina’s injury situation, along with wanting to get more production from the guards, why was Herro’s floor time as brief as it was?
“I gave him a hard time, only because the things he got hurt on while he was out there — that’s a tough spot to be in,” head coach Lamont Paris said on the Learfield postgame radio show on 107.5 The Game.
“He hasn’t played at all in a meaningful game, then you’re going to come out on the road at Oklahoma in the first half. That’s hard, but hopefully there will be some things he can learn from there.”
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Paris said Herro may continue to get some minutes as the Gamecocks look to earn their first SEC win this season. But when he was out there, the third-year coach felt there were some “effort, toughness plays” where he could’ve done a better job.
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In his second year with the program, Herro didn’t play at all last season after opting to redshirt. Before Saturday, he had only played in four games — Towson, Boston College, USC Upstate, and Radford — only logging one minute in each of those appearances.
“Once he’s reliable in those situations, he can get out there,” Paris said. “He doesn’t have to score, doesn’t have to do much offensively except throw it to the guys with the same-colored jerseys on as him.”
As for the other guards, Ugusuk led the way with 15 points on 5-of-11 shooting with four three-pointers. Wright had 10, Davis had 7 to round out the trio of guards in the starting five. Coming off the bench, Conyers went for six points on 2-of-9 shooting, including 0-of-4 from behind the arc. Cam Scott also had two points in six minutes.
“We have to find some guys,” Paris said of the current guard situation. “Jacobi is not used to playing that many minutes. He was fatigued at times. He does a lot, guards the ball, doing a lot while he’s out there. Thirty-three of his minutes is like 40-plus for the average guy who may not have to do all those things. Just continuing to find a way to continue to tweak this or that to help sustained that level of play longer.”
