What Lamont Paris said about South Carolina’s NCAA Tournament draw

Lamont Paris had one thought when he saw South Carolina’s first opponent appear on the television: How quickly can I get back to the office?

The Gamecocks’ men’s head basketball coach has USC back in March Madness for the first time in seven years, locking up the No. 6 seed in the Pittsburgh regional. USC plays No. 11 seed, and Pac 12 champion, Oregon on Thursday. He said he doesn’t know much about the Ducks right now, but he’s planning on catching up as soon as possible.

“Well, I’m headed over to the office after this,” Paris said. “We’ll start to gather information on Oregon and start watching game film and putting a game plan together.”

The overwhelming excitement of taking South Carolina back to the NCAA Tournament wasn’t worn down though. It meant something to see his team light up as their logo appeared on the screen.

Bringing USC back to the tournament

Paris briefly reflected on the journey he’s been on since taking over at USC. He remembered promising the Gamecock fans to bring them back to the Big Dance.

That fact that he did it in two years, he says, means he’s got something going.

“What it says is, we have the right people around this program,” Paris said. “And that’s everything, from our coaches, on our staff, to our players, certainly, most importantly, to our players, to our administration, to everybody that has poured into making this happen as quickly as it has.”

He even said it might mean USC is “ahead of schedule,” winning 26 games a year over just 11 total victories.

It certainly checks off a goal South Carolina has been hungry to achieve, and now Paris has a chance to pick up his first-ever win in March Madness as a head coach.

Paris has experience, if nothing else

Most of the Gamecocks have never experienced the NCAAs. In fact, a good chunk of the roster didn’t experience any postseason win until last week at the SEC Tournament.

But you know who has immense March Madness experience? Paris.

His time spent as an assistant coach gave Paris a chance to experience the Big Dance. He was in the tournament just two years ago. Paris knows what to expect, and he can help guide the Gamecocks through what the glitz and glamour of the tournament will feel like.

On the other hand, there are a lot of teams experiencing March Madness for the first time, too.

“It’s hard to do that,” Paris said. “I think we’re getting further and further away from any one particular group having a lot of NCAA tourney tournament experience collectively. They may have it individually. But just because there’s so many moving parts on rosters these days.”

The plan is to remind players that nothing really changes. They’ll still play a basketball game. Just because there might be more fans, more cameras and national attention involved, it doesn’t take away from it being the same game USC has played all season.

“In our minds, we’ll try to prepare the same way that we have for every other game and have a good game plan,” Paris said. “The guys will know the things that are important in this particular game.”

It’s not too far from home

Pittsburgh is a familiar spot for Paris. That’s where he coached his first NCAA Tournament appearance with Chattanooga. Selfishly, he wants to even that record in the Steel City.

“We got to even the score out,” he said smiling. “So I’m going in 0-1 as head coach in Pittsburgh, in the NCAA Tournament, so we’ve got even a score out.”

With the Gamecocks sticking on the East Coast, it means no time zone change or any massive travel plans between now and Wednesday. Meanwhile, that’ll be the case for Oregon.

Location is never a true indicator or who can win a game in this tournament, but it’s a small advantage Paris knows can be helpful. Plus, it means he’ll have a plethora of friends and family from Ohio ready to come see the Gamecocks on Thursday.

“It’s a little bit of a logistical nightmare for me just because the sheer volume of ticket requests that I’ll have for this game,” Paris said, laughing. “But that’s a good problem to have. And it’s and it’s all love and support.”

Injury updates for Myles Stute and Ta’Lon Cooper

Paris said both Myles Stute and Ta’Lon Cooper have felt “significantly” better since returning to Columbia from the SEC Tournament.

Stute didn’t play in the Gamecocks’ quarterfinals game with a day-to-day hip pointer, USC announced, while Cooper dealt with an ankle injury mid-game that took him out for some of the second half.

“I think they’re both feeling significantly better than what they were,” Paris said. “They had a full day yesterday of getting some treatment. So tomorrow will be the first day that we’re back in the gym. So we’ll see what it looks like for both of them and how close they are to being able to go, full go.”

Stute and Cooper average 8.8 and 9.7 points per game, respectively. South Carolina will have two days of in-house preparation before heading up to Pennsylvania.

Paris plans to have a “lighter” practice on Monday and a more intense session on Tuesday to get set for a date with the Ducks.