Lamont Paris lets it be known 'it's time' for players to step up after latest offensive struggles

Lamont Paris ran out of college basketball eligibility almost 30 years ago. But in the early minutes of South Carolina’s road matchup against Georgia, he wishes he could’ve thrown himself out there to do things the way they should be done.

After winning the opening tip-off, the Gamecocks moved down the floor with the ball in Morris Ugusuk’s hands. As he looked to make a move, he dribbled and threw a bullet pass to Jacobi Wright waiting along the perimeter. The pass was there, except it went off Wright’s hands and ended up a few rows into the seats.

There have been a lot of tough moments during South Carolina’s eight-game losing streak. But even Paris couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw this was how his team opened the game en route to a 71-60 loss in Athens on Tuesday.

“I’m at a loss for words to some to some degree with it,” Paris said. “… It’s a combination of decisions, of maybe lack of confidence as a ball handler. As a passer, it’s receivers that aren’t presenting themselves as wide open maybe. I think it’s been a culmination of all those things.”

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There wasn’t one sole thing that went wrong leading to the loss, it was more so a combination of many things that had been going wrong all season. The Gamecocks turned the ball over 17 times, making it five straight games with 16 or more turnovers. In SEC play, they’re averaging 16.3 of them per game.

“It’s like solving a Rubik’s Cube,” Paris said. “I mean, I know people do that pretty easily these days, but I don’t think I ever got it done officially. So, we’ll just keep at it until we find out what the right combination of things that we do and people that are out there with one another to where we can get the turnovers under a reasonable number.”

Going hand in hand with the turnovers was the lack of consistent scoring. South Carolina was only down 18-16 with under eight minutes to go in the first half. But because the offense only hit one field goal in the final 10:11, Georgia capitalized and took a 14-point lead.

Primarily at the guard position, the Gamecocks received nearly no production from their three starters. Wright, Ugusuk and Zachary Davis tallied a combined eight points on 3-of-15 shooting. Meanwhile, Jamarii Thomas came off the bench and gave some solid minutes, especially in the second half, with a team-high 19 points. But even he led the way with five turnovers.

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However you draw it up, the drop off from last year to this year is becoming more noticeable. It was always going to be hard to replace a starting backcourt of Ta’Lon Cooper and Meechie Johnson. But everything they did well in helping South Carolina win 26 games hasn’t happened for the replacement guards this season.

“Ta’Lon during the season, I think, had the seventh highest assist rate of all active players. So, I mean, that’s a hard one to replace,” Paris said. “But what happens is you bring new guys in, and guys have opportunity. Some of it happens through growth opportunity, and then some of it happens through recruiting a new face, like Jamarii. When we brought these guys in, we told them about the opportunities that they would have.”

With Cooper, he was always the reliable floor general, who could go out and score when needed. That wasn’t always his main role, though. He was the guide to steer the ship for the offense. Johnson, meanwhile, led the 2023-24 team with 14.1 points per game on 39.9 percent shooting.

However, some of the important numbers that made a difference and were low last year are up this year, and not in a good way. Collin Murray-Boyles, who’s nearly averaging a double-double, is turning the ball over 1.6 more times than he did as a freshman. Even for Thomas, the viable replacement for what they were losing at guard, is averaging 12.8 points but also 2.4 turnovers.

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With 10 games left to go in the regular season, South Carolina doesn’t have a lot of time to figure things out, especially not in an 0-8 SEC hole. If something is going to change, Paris believes it must start with the guards playing better basketball.

“It’s time. That’s what comes with responsibility, is that at some point there’s, there’s no more looking around to see if Meechie is going to come back and get the ball, or if Ta’Lon’s going to be able to come off the ball screen and make a read,” he said.

“There’s no more of that; those days are over. Some other guys are going to have to do it. It’s their turn to do it. We’re relying on them to do it, and we need to get better at doing some of those things.”

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