Lamont Paris voices thoughts on why South Carolina should be ranked
All year, the narrative about South Carolina has slowly shifted. Picked to finish last in the SEC, many didn’t give the Gamecocks a chance at the start. But as the wins have kept coming, more and more people are seeing what’s happening in Columbia.
Despite this, it’s seemingly never been enough to win the minds of voters. Those who make the decisions of who earns a little number next to their name and who doesn’t. The argument was South Carolina didn’t have enough quality wins to earn a ranking.
But now, the Gamecocks are knocking on the door after picking up two massive wins this week, one of which came against No. 6 Kentucky. After Saturday’s win over Missouri, head coach Lamont Paris made it clear it’s time for his team to make it into the next AP Poll.
“Let’s think about it,” Paris said. “One of the officials goes out in the middle of the floor with the ball, and he throws it up. They’ve done that 20 times this year, and 17 times our guys have come out on top. So I think that’s to be commended and be rewarded. In their minds, it’s a tremendous reward.”
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At this point, South Carolina’s resume speaks for itself. Now sitting at 17-3 (5-2 SEC), it has beaten who’s on the schedule. The Gamecocks have two wins against Quad 1 opponents and are 6-2 against teams Quad 2 or higher.
On the other side of the coin, some will say South Carolina didn’t play anyone for a good portion of the schedule. That has some validity to it. The Gamecocks are 8-0 against Quad 4 teams this year.
To Paris, that shouldn’t be the only thing taken into account, especially after beating some good quality teams as of late.
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“The main thing is for these guys, they’ve worked really hard,” Paris said. “They can’t control the schedule. They don’t have any say so on who we play, they go out there and and whoever’s out there they play, and they’ve done that. And they’ve worked hard, and they’ve won.”
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Regardless of what happens on Monday with the AP Poll, there are still going to be those who don’t believe in South Carolina. But that doesn’t matter to Paris anymore. He’s used to being counted out.
“We’re a society of consumers…we were waiting on someone to tell us if South Carolina is good or not. And in November, they told the world that we’re not good. And so people form their opinion on that, people that were never in one of our practices. They form their opinion on influencers, basically,” he said.
“And so now, we don’t want to go over the top with it, but I think is a significant achievement for this group. I’m very, very, very happy that they’ll be able to have a chance to attach a little number. Doesn’t change the game but it’ll change a lot in their minds maybe.”
