What Lamont Paris said about additions of BJ Mack, Myles Stute
When Lamont Paris set out to rebuild the Gamecocks’ roster this offseason, one of his biggest things was getting older. They did with BJ Mack and Myles Stute.
South Carolina did it early in the portal, landing Ta’Lon Cooper and Stephen Clark and did it again in their third and fourth pickups in Mack and Stute.
Making his first public comments about both players since they signed, Paris was excited not only about their level of experience but the skill sets each bring to the team.
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“Skill and versatility for both of those guys. Besides the fact they’re experienced, they’re both ready for a significantly more vast role,” Paris said. “One of them at a different level in BJ and one at a different position and a different role in Myles Stute.”
Mack started his career at South Florida before transferring to Wofford. There, he became a two-year starter and ultimately averaged 16.6 points and over five rebounds a game this season for the Terriers.
Mack shot 49.2 percent from the field and 33.5 percent from three as a 6-foot-8 big man while the Gamecocks plan to use him in that stretch-four role at South Carolina.
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Stute was a two-year starter at Vanderbilt and was known as one of the best three-point shooters in the country during spurts there. In 2022, Stute averaged 8.4 points and 4.6 rebounds per game while shooting 36.1 percent from three and 34.7 from the field.
Those numbers were largely affected by a bad month to end the season. From November to the end of January Stute was averaging 10.1 points and 5.4 boards while shooting 42.4 percent from three.
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Both will be asked to play starter minutes for South Carolina and because of their experience, Paris thinks they can do it.
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“You look at players and project what they can get to at one point. The older guys, what you see is it’s more realistic they can get to those quicker,” Paris said. “There will be some changes in what these guys are accustomed to as players but I’m looking forward to working with them and growing and achieving some of these goals they have.”
South Carolina currently has a four-man portal class with those two, Cooper and Clark. All four have been multi-year starters in college with 11,373 combined minutes played.
Last season they combined to play 4,113 minutes.
Getting older was an immense priority for Paris and the Gamecocks staff, and they succeeded. That makes him optimistic about what next season can be.
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“I looked at our team last year and going into the season who had been a regular starter had been Hayden Brown. On the entire team. Now we’ll be able to have six, seven or eight guys who’ve been in that same situation,” he said.
“Even if the overall talent was the same exactly, from an experience standpoint these are huge additions for us. Just looking forward to getting these guys here and having some fun getting better.”
