What Lamont Paris said after South Carolina's road loss at Georgia

Following a 71-60 loss at Georgia on Tuesday, South Carolina head coach Lamont Paris spoke to the media after the game. Below is a summary of what he had to say.

— They find themselves in unfortunately familiar territory with a similar culprit. They turned the ball over 17 times, gave up 11 second chance points. Those things impact the game.

— They have to figure a way to stop turning the ball over, whether that’s a change in what they’re doing. They have to get better at that. They spend a good amount of time passing and catching. It’s got to translate over to the game.

— Ta’Lon Cooper was a good player for them last year. It was in conjunction with Meechie Johnson who could also alleviate some pressure. Behind those guys were Wright and Davis to do some of the ball handling. You bring new guys in and they have an opportunity. Some of it happens through growth and some of it happens through recruiting like Jamarii Thomas. Guys have to step up and play better. That’s where the bulk of the turnovers come from. They’ve got to get to the bottom of it.

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— Roster limitations and execution probably go hand in hand. The league is also overall better this year. A lot of people in the league probably feel they have a better team than last year. South Carolina is almost doing the same things. He hasn’t changed his practice habits necessarily. But it comes down to personnel’s ability to execute, too.

— As they look for answers, everyone is going to be a viable candidate. The problem with that is if you have a two-quarterback system, he doesn’t know if you have any quarterback. When you have so many viable options, it means someone isn’t holding down the position the way it needs to be held down.

— Thinks Wright has to be aggressive. He looks at him specifically when he talks about these things. He’s a senior. They have other seniors. But he’s been in this program. He’s familiar with what they do. He’s got to be aggressive and competitive. If you go down guns a blazing without making a shot, it is what it is. But they need him to play well. He didn’t seem real aggressive.

— The inability to score is probably happening in conjunction with the turnovers. They’ve been pretty good at times being able to score this season. They went 3-0 against ACC teams and scored in some of those games. They’ve got to get their groove back with some individuals. It’s time. That’s what comes with responsibility. There’s no more looking around to see if Meechie is going to come back and get the ball, same with Ta’Lon. Those days are over. They need to be better.

— The most challenging part of this stretch is they play the No. 5 team in Florida, you lead the entire game. They failed to close the game. Vandy scored on a tip in at the last second. You’ve got the No. 2 team in your building and you lead most of the way. That’s what’s frustrating to him. He’s been around a lot of elite teams. He’s also been around some bad teams. So he knows what a bad team is. You can’t accidentally do those things, this is the best the league has ever been. There’s a whole other timeline where they make three plays and their record looks a lot different. That’s the reality of it. That’s what it boils down to.

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— Wishes he could put himself in right now when they turned the ball over on the first possession. He’s at a loss for words with the turnovers at this point. He truly thinks the players would like to do what they ask. It’s decisions, maybe lack of confidence as a ball handler, receivers that aren’t presenting themselves as wide open maybe. It’s a culmination of all those things perhaps. He goes through everything that they’re doing to see what they can do better. He noted there’s no more catch on the wing to prevent one less area of turnovers. It’s like solving a Rubik’s cube. They’ll just keep going at it until they find the right combination of things that they do to get the turnovers down to a reasonable number.

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