Lamont Paris shares why South Carolina will be fine as conference play starts
By all accounts, it has been a tremendous start to the season for South Carolina. Not much has gone wrong outside of one close loss. The Gamecocks are 12-1 with all the right buttons being pushed.
There haven’t been many hurdles to cross yet. South Carolina hasn’t had to consistently play high-quality opponents due to a favorable non-conference slate. But that all changes on Saturday.
The Gamecocks will begin an 18-game marathon against SEC opponents, starting with Mississippi State. While it will be a major step up in competition, head coach Lamont Paris feels great about where his group’s mindset is at.
“They tell me that we haven’t had one loss going into the regular season very often,” Paris said. “Guys are playing with confidence. They expect that if we do the things that we need to do that we should win. Barring a terrible offensive day, if we do the things we need to do, we should win the game. That’s the mentality of these guys going into any game.”
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With a lot of talented shooters, South Carolina has been very good offensively. As a group, the team is shooting 52.5 percent from the field and only turning the ball over 14.7 percent of the time.
But it’s not just that. One thing Paris has really harped on this year has been to play better defensively. There have been times where the Gamecocks have played great on that end of the floor. They’ve held opponents under 70 points in all but two games. With how well the offense can shoot, it’s a recipe for success.
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“I think we’ve done a good job of being sound defensively, taking care of the ball,” Paris said. “I think the shot quality that we’ve generated is really high as a general rule. We’ve had one day where we’ve shot the ball well. And hopefully as we move forward, we’ll have more days like that. But the quality of shots we’ve generated have been good.
“Blocking out, it’s going to be easier to block some of the guys that we’ve already played out versus a couple of the guys on some of these teams…We’ve shared the ball incredibly well. The numbers say that but my eye balls say that more importantly. Just continuing to do those things.”
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However, Paris knows as well as anyone how much harder things will get the rest of the season. In his first year, South Carolina only won four games in conference play. Granted, last year’s team is much different than this year’s group. But it’s still worth-noting. And Paris will be looking to put the past in the past and change the narrative.
“We’re just continuing to try and get better as a team,” he said. “We talked a little bit about the challenges of some of the things that we’ve done successfully in these first 13 games. They’ll be made more difficult in these next 18 games, just due to length, overall size, athleticism. But as a general rule, the things that have allowed us to win these games are what we’re going to have to do in these games. So being competitive, I think that’s a big part of being able to get those things done.”
