South Carolina entering pivotal 'roster management' part of offseason

Lamont Paris is certainly pleased with the progress South Carolina made in its first year with him at the helm, but now things get ready to ratchet up. 

The Gamecocks, fresh off their season ending, now enter roster-building mode, a pivotal few months where Paris and his staff try to bring talent into the program and improve after an 11-win season. 

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“We’ll get back and pretty quickly here we’ll be talking about roster management situations. Obviously, Hayden (Brown) will be gone,” Paris said. “I think plugging and improving your overall talent level, whether that’s physical or addressing needs that you have. I hate to talk about student-athletes as commodities, that’s what it ends up sounding like. Getting all that put together, that’s the next step.”

South Carolina arrived back in Columbia Thursday afternoon. They’re prepping now for a frenzied few weeks with the transfer portal opening in full force soon. 

Graduate transfers are already hopping into the portal. And it will be a full onslaught Monday with the full portal window opening. South Carolina has already shown interest in a few graduate transfers and will undoubtedly look to add more pieces who enter over the next few days. 

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For Paris, this is an integral stretch for him and his staff while they try and build a roster that can compete more consistently in the SEC.

The pitch, in part to recruits, is to continue to get in on the ground floor and build something.

“I think as you’re talking to recruits, that’s part of it. ‘Vision’ is always a word that goes out there, too. You want kids that want to be a part of something special,” Paris said. “Doing it in a different way, that’s why I can’t thank Hayden Brown enough. He was the first guy that said yes to come here. (Brown) wanted to be on the ground floor, he did. He wanted to be on the ground floor.”

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Paris enters his second recruiting cycle but first full one after coming in a few weeks after the season ended last year. 

“When you’re talking about recruits, you’re talking about vision, you’re talking about the energy and excitement. Our fans were really good, really good. Some of the games we had at Colonial Life Arena, our student body and our fans in general,” he said. 

“You see that. You see the excitement. We talk about that to the recruits, as well. But the vision and being a part of something and getting in there early, an early adopter of what we’ve got going on here. It’s going to be fun.”

The Gamecocks will largely build through the transfer portal. But there are two high school signees also expected to enroll this summer. 

One is forward Collin Murray-Boyles, who On3 considers a four-star prospect and the No. 97 player in the country. The other is Arden Conyers, a three-star wing. Both are Columbia prospects. 

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“I love both of them. Taller than average guys that are skilled, can shoot pass and dribble and make their teammates better. Those are the only two signees we have right now. Once the season ends and the transfer portal–the monster it is–starts moving we’ll look at what our needs might be and try to make a couple of moves as far as that goes, Paris told Derek Scott on Carolina Calls earlier this season. 

“But there will be some new faces. There will be a lot of familiar faces next year, and that’ll be a great thing, but there will be some new faces next year. That, also, will be a great thing.”

South Carolina entered the season with an open scholarship and has one player–Hayden Brown–with expiring eligibility. The two freshmen will fill those two scholarships.

If there are any players who opt to go pro or transfer, it would open a scholarship for a transfer portal prospect.

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