Lamont Paris on South Carolina signees: 'We're happy to have those guys'
Lamont Paris looks for a lot of things when evaluating which players South Carolina should target, and subsequently sign, in the high school ranks.
The biggest is wanting to be at and play for South Carolina. And he feels like he got that in this year’s high school signees Collin Murray-Boyles and Arden Conyers.
Subscribe until the 2023 football season for only $10!
“Man, I talked to both of those guys yesterday. Great kids. In my experience, the want to be somewhere is the determining factor, by in large, in how successful your tenure is there. It’s the number one factor. Those guys both really want to be here,” Paris said Thursday. “We’re really excited about them. I made sure to reach out to both of them and tell them that.”
The Gamecocks inked the bulk of their 2023 high school recruiting class last week, getting National Letters of Intent from both Murray-Boyles and Conyers Wednesday afternoon.
Both are in-state players, Conyers playing at Westwood while Murray-Boyles started his career at AC Flora. He’ll play his senior year at Wasatch Academy in Utah.
Paris likes not only the fact that both are from South Carolina, an area he wants to emphasize in recruiting, but they can do a lot of different things on the court.
“In-state guys, taller than average guys, who can do multiple things and have multiple skills inside and multiple skills on the perimeter. They’re great kids, they’re my kind of guys. They’re interested in school. They take that seriously,” Paris said.
“They have perspectives and views in life, they have their own opinions. They’re serious about basketball. They respect and fear, to some degree, the people that brought them into this world.”
Win a MarShawn Lloyd-autographed Gamecocks football
Murray-Boyles is the highest-rated of the two, cracking the On3 rankings in the latest update at No. 117 nationally. He’s considered the No. 24 small forward in the class.
Top 10
- 1Breaking
Deion Sanders violations
Coach Prime caught by NCAA
- 2New
Top 25 QBs in CFB
Looking ahead to 2025 season
- 3
2025 Heisman Odds
The early front-runners are in
- 4Trending
Bill Belichick signs
UNC coach inks deal
- 5
Troy Smith
OSU legend fires at Jim Harbaugh
Get the On3 Top 10 to your inbox every morning
By clicking "Subscribe to Newsletter", I agree to On3's Privacy Notice, Terms, and use of my personal information described therein.
On3’s consensus rankings has Murray-Boyles as the No. 192 player in the country and the No. 41 small forward.
On3 also lists Conyers as the No. 49 shooting guard in the country and the fourth-best player in the state behind Coen Carr, Jordan Butler and Murray-Boyles.
On3’s consensus has him No. 249 in the rankings and the No. 53 shooting guard. The consensus also has him as the fourth-best player in the state.
There are just a lot of qualities I value that don’t have to do with basketball,” Paris said. “We’re really happy to have those guys.”
South Carolina is off to a perfect 2-0 start on the court in Paris’s first season. The Gamecocks beat SC State by three and then used a Chico Carter game-winning shot to topple rival Clemson.
The next game is Thursday afternoon (5 p.m.) against Colorado State while playing in the Charleston Classic.
