SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL TIPOFF MEDIA DAYS

October 13, 2026

Lamont Paris

South Carolina Gamecocks

Men's Media Day Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Please welcome Lamont Paris.

LAMONT PARIS: Serious student, I don't know what the total definition of that is, but I was pretty serious at the time. I did an independent study thesis. College of Wooster is one of the only universities in America that you have to do one of those in the undergrad. Mine was 110 pages. It's probably the most focused I'd ever been as a student. Anyway, I'm proud of it, and it's in my office as we speak.

I digress. Here we are. It's basketball season, so we're ready to rock and roll, back here in Birmingham, ready to start another season, season number five.

Really excited about the group that we've put together. More excited than some people apparently based on what the preseason picks are. But I am very excited about this group. It's a great opportunity to buy low and sell high for any of those interested in doing that out there right now.

Our group is a really good group. It's a talented group. It's an experienced group. I think when they get off the bus, if it matters at all, you'll notice significant differences in our overall size at a lot of different positions and depth of size from a year ago.

Experience, we got some players that have played in the NCAA Tournament. We've got guys that started for NCAA Tournament teams. We've got guys that have been coached by people that I know and that I know are good coaches.

We were very, very diligent about putting this team together. The transfer portal, it's a crazy -- it was a very crazy and stressful time, as it is for most teams. I will say in the past there have been times where it hasn't been quite as stressful just the way that recruiting has changed. The more resources you have, the more battles you're going to be in, and the more stressful that is.

When you don't have quite as many resources, it's not quite as stressful, but it's not quite as -- you're not in quite as many battles. We were in a lot of battles this year.

We've identified guys that are good at the things that we like them to be good at: feel, skill, toughness. Those are three of the things that I've always tried to instill in our teams and recruit to our teams.

I think three years ago Garth talked about we did a lot of things that year. We won the most games in school history. What was that team? What was it that made that team special? That team was also picked last in the preseason polls.

We had a center who was 6'8" and never dunked one time. So plenty of people thought they didn't like him compared to all the other centers in our league that dunked a lot. We had a point guard that was from Minnesota who had one of the worst records in high major basketball. We had another point guard that was from Ohio State and hadn't had a tremendous amount of success.

From the outside, it's easy to look at that and say, hey, here's why we're going to pick this team where they are, but we were able to identify guys that fit us and that we thought would be really good for us, and that worked out incredibly well that year.

We had a similar mindset in trying to put this year's group together. I'd be remiss if I didn't thank our administration. I can't say it enough times. They provided the support that we needed to be able to act on those identification of players and then recruit the players that we had identified by and large as a group.

So we're really excited about the team that we've put together. If I had to use one word to describe this group, it's early, it's October. Ultimately, there will be a lot of different words maybe that you'll use to describe them, but they start from a place of competitiveness. It's probably one of the most competitive groups I've ever been around in terms of just at practice wanting to win every single thing that we ever do, every guy does.

Sometimes that gets in the way of the main message that I'm trying to send at that particular drill, but it's a fantastic place to start from in this conference because, if you don't compete, if you're not driven by competition in this league, you will inevitably perish as a team.

To have a group that is founded by and large on competitiveness is really exciting for me, and then we got a lot of pieces with a lot of versatility. So I'm excited about the group.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. You mentioned just how much, I guess, you lean on that 2024 experience going into this year. I guess just for you looking back on that season, what do you feel like you learned as a coach in that year that you're kind of taking into this one?

LAMONT PARIS: Yeah, I think the big thing was that the things that you believe in were validated just in terms of playing basketball, fundamentals, some basic things that are teachable and can be done through repetition.

I think based on my experiences in my career, all those principles had been developed, and I believed in those things.

And then when you got a group of guys that were good at those things and willing -- willing to do something that they've never done before, willing to hear some truths -- and then all that stuff was put together, just to see how that came into fruition, it wasn't that much of a surprise to me that that team really achieved, if not overachieved.

We've been chasing that ever since. I will say this. The following year we did have a good group. You know, the SEC was not the SEC, no disrespect -- I don't think there's anybody in here that's been around the SEC that wouldn't say men's basketball has grown over the years in terms of the overall depth of talent. Now, the top of the league has always been some of the best basketball in the country. But the depth of talent in this league.

I think the year following that '24 season we ran into a buzz saw that saw 14 teams go to the NCAA Tournament. We probably were a piece away in terms of from a personnel standpoint.

But we also in that same year had seven games, in that year had seven games that were four points in our league, four points or less, or overtime, plus the couple that we won, puts you into the tournament if you can win most of those.

So that team was right there. Last year was a different thing.

Just to answer your question, in terms of trying to reproduce some of those things, it's a commitment to defending in a way that you probably have never defended before, taking pride in defending your one-on-one match-up in a way that you never have.

We've challenged guys to do that, and I think the ones that have bought into it have left as the best version of themselves defensively that they've ever imagined.

So we're continuing to try to push the envelope in that area. But basically just fundamentals and an adherence to some basic fundamentals and principles is I think what allowed that '24 team to really thrive.

Q. South Carolina is projected to finish 16th in the SEC, as you know. What do you think about that, and how are you keeping your players motivated when they see those stats in?

LAMONT PARIS: Well, I mean, if our players are not motivated after seeing that, then I probably have the wrong players. You know, 16 out of 16 is probably pretty easy pick. Trivia question in here. Anybody know how many times in the last 15 years South Carolina has been picked to finish in the top half of the SEC? One guess. Anybody. Zero. Zero times in the preseason poll in the last 15 years has South Carolina been picked to finish above halfway.

So it's an easy pick for somebody to say South Carolina would be towards the bottom of the league. But having said that, it's completely irrelevant to me. My approach as a coach and the amount of film I watch and the amount of time I spend in preparing and all those things and my staff are all going to be the same.

However, it can be a motivating factor it our players. On the day that we need it the most, on a couple of days here, I'll remind them what some people who probably have never seen them practice, certainly not as a group, have never seen them practice as a group, have prejudged them based on what they did at the school that they were at before, even though some of them were starters on NCAA Tournament teams.

They've been prejudged, unfavorably so, and I will remind them of that.

Q. You mentioned the significant difference in size. What does -- first of all, was that intentional to do this offseason in the portal? And also, how does that benefit what you want to do offensively and defensively?

LAMONT PARIS: Yeah, I think there was some intentionality behind that. Our league has morphed into something I've never seen before from a physical standpoint.

As I look back, it's always been athletes in this league. It's athletes that are incredibly physical and physical at the points that matter the most: at the rim, as you're attacking the basket.

I've never seen such a thing, this level of physicality with this type of athlete in combination. That's part of the reason why our league is doing what it's doing.

If you look at our league in the nonconference, particularly, it's unbelievable. So there was some real intentionality behind getting more physical. Now, when the game starts, you're going to have to play physical. It's one thing to be strong or to be tall. You have to play strong and play through physicality.

Certainly we were very intentional about understanding that in this league, the way that it is right now, you'd better be physical. In terms of rebounding in this conference right now, it's amazing. I've never seen anything like it.

But in terms of what it takes to compete, you have to have a certain level, baseline, of physicality to do that. Certainly that was a big part of it.

We've got some guys with size that are really skilled: skilled passers, skilled decision-makers. Our understanding of the game of basketball, by and large, is significantly improved from a year ago.

When I say this, this is no disrespect to anybody that played for us last year. This is a collective evaluation. I mean, you can do a renovation on a house, and you can -- it can not be a great renovation in its totality, but you may have the finest kitchenette anyone has ever cooked in before.

So we're talking about the totality of things. I think as a group our feel for the game is much improved. Our overall size is much improved. Our skill and our physicality and competitive spirit I think generally is improved.