What Lamont Paris is looking for in Saturday's scrimmage
The first big data point of the South Carolina basketball season comes this weekend.
The Gamecocks are set to host a closed-door scrimmage. It’s the first chance for Lamont Paris and the rest of his staff to see how the team does against outside competition.
“It’s just the first time we’re playing against another team other than ourselves. If we call a play out–23 Skidoo we’ll call it–everyone knows what 23 Skidoo is (in practice). So it may seem like it doesn’t work,” Paris said. “I’m looking forward to playing against somebody else, particularly against a team that’s a good defensive team.”
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According to Stadium’s Jeff Goodman, the scrimmage will be against Charlotte. Charlotte is projected to finish 8-12 in Conference USA this season and is the No. 183 in the preseason this year by KenPom.
Paris likes what the 49ers are doing defensively, which is something he looked for when scheduling these kinds of scrimmages.
“I like in my scrimmages normally to go against someone who’s good defensively,” Paris said. “Whatever you achieve offensively there’s some belief in that and guys know it’s real. We’ll do that.”
The scrimmage is a good evaluation tool for Paris and his staff against another team and another jersey, but it’s also a chance for players to get a sense of what the Gamecocks’ staff will look like on game days.
South Carolina will go through what Paris called a miniature scouting report, pregame warmups and other gameday-like routines.
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That will be good for a team with no player having played in Paris’s system before and eight new faces on the roster.
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“Then even how we warm up, practicing that before the first scrimmage and a mini scouting report,” Paris said. “All kinds of things that go into the production that goes into playing basketball games that you don’t think about doing with 15 new guys.”
This is the first of two chances the Gamecocks have to tune up before the season starts in earnest.
The public isn’t allowed in Saturday, but South Carolina also hosts Mars Hill Nov. 2 in a public exhibition. That’s a program led by former Gamecocks guard Larry Davis, who’s in his first season there.
South Carolina’s season gets really cranked up Nov. 8 at home against South Carolina State before the Gamecocks host archrival Clemson Nov. 11.
