What Lamont Paris said after South Carolina's loss to Florida
Following an 88-67 loss to the No. 3-ranked Florida Gators on Saturday, South Carolina basketball coach Lamont Paris spoke with 107.5 The Game’s Derek Scott. Below is a summary of what he had to say.
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–Coach Paris thought his team’s performance in the 1st half was okay, even with nine turnovers. Carolina scored better than one-point-per-possession in the opening 20 minutes. However, he believed that a low turnover output in the opening period could have drastically changed the whole game. If USC had turned the ball over three times or so, they would have been leading instead of trailing by four. That makes the start of the 2nd half go a little differently.
–Paris said that the Gamecocks got out of rhythm in the 2nd half. Said Florida stayed in rhythm. That was the difference. South Carolina wasn’t finishing plays well enough, either. Florida’s ability to make shots put pressure on the offense and made easy opportunities difficult as it allowed the Gator defense to get set.
–Florida made some wild shots, but South Carolina didn’t do enough on the plays they could alter. Too many open opportunities for Todd Golden’s team. Once they started to feel good, the floodgates opened.
–He “didn’t have enough timeouts” to slow down Florida’s onslaught on Saturday. The Gators shot 14-28 from the perimeter over the course of the game.
–Paris thought Florida played with physicality and aggression against his frontcourt. Collin Murray-Boyles and Nick Pringle weren’t bad, but the style of play caused some problems. The good things the duo did down low could have been more impactful had the Gators not attacked so aggressively.
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–South Carolina isn’t taking (or making) enough 3-point shots. He doesn’t call a lot of plays for designed 3s, necessarily, but they have got to get more good looks out there. Paris doesn’t have a “target number” each game, but four (the total makes in this game) isn’t enough. Neither is 12 attempts. They normally shoot 20-something times from outside. Some of it was CMB and PRingle getting opportunities inside, but some of it was not finding those looks.
–Free throws (19-for-23) was a positive. Getting to the line is an emphasis. The Gamecocks did that, but they didn’t do enough otherwise offensively.
–The SEC schedule is a gauntlet. Paris says he’s never seen anything like the league’s “extreme depth and quality.” That doesn’t excuse the team going winless so far in league play.
–He hates the “oh, we were close” nonsense. The Gamecocks should have won more than a couple of games this year. For some reason, they are struggling to get over the hump. That wasn’t exactly what happened against Florida on Saturday as a bad run in the 2nd half killed things.
