What’s it like to be picked last in the SEC? And other notes from the league’s media day.

Welcome to the Southeastern Conference, where no one thinks you’ll be any good this season.

That was basically the hello for Lamont Paris, who was the first SEC coach to speak to reporters at SEC media day Wednesday morning. Just before Paris arrived at the podium, it was revealed that those same reporters had picked his South Carolina Gamecocks to finish 14th and last in the conference.

Not the warmest of welcomes for the new head coach, but not entirely unexpected either.

“You know, it didn’t surprise me,” Paris said. “You look, we have probably the least experience overall in terms of who’s competed at this level and even at different levels, in terms of minutes played, points scored. I can see where that stems from.”

Paris is taking over a Gamecocks program that went to the Final Four in 2017 but has missed the NCAA Tournament every year since. Last season, South Carolina went 18-13 overall and 9-9 in the SEC. Frank Martin was dismissed as head coach shortly thereafter and landed the UMass coaching job a couple of weeks later.

Each team brings two players to SEC media day, and no one in the South Carolina traveling party was with the program last season. Paris is new, and so were the Gamecocks he brought to Birmingham on Wednesday morning. Hayden Brown spent the past five years at The Citadel before transferring to Columbia. GG Jackson is still just 17 years old and an incoming freshman.

Paris turns 48 years old next month. He was a player at Division III Wooster (Ohio) and a college assistant coach for 17 years before getting his first top job at Chattanooga in 2017, leading the Mocs to the NCAA Tournament last season.

“I’ve been picked last just in general,” he said. “Oftentimes I thrive on that. I’m motivated by that. There aren’t a lot of reasons why I’m standing at this podium right now. It wasn’t because I played at a blue blood. It wasn’t because I had whoever the current czar of basketball is calling to get me a job. That’s not how it happened.

“I use that to motivate myself, certainly. I will impart that on our guys to take it — we’ll take it personal. We’ll have a chip on our shoulder. It doesn’t mean we’re going to win all 32 regular-season games because we have a chip on our shoulder. But where you are picked and where you finish are oftentimes two different things.”

That mentality has already had a trickle-down effect.

“Just going to use that as motivation,” Jackson said. “I kind of came to South Carolina knowing that we’re not going to have the highest ranking. We’re not going to have the best-looking team or whatever, that the media or the people may see. But we know what our goal is. And we stay grinding every day.”

Jackson, a Columbia, S.C., native, was the No. 6 overall prospect in the 2022 class, according to the 247Sports composite rankings. He doesn’t turn 18 years old until December and reclassified from the 2023 class to attend South Carolina this season. ESPN projects him as the No. 20 overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft.

Buzz on the NCAA

Back in March, the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee left Texas A&M out of the Big Dance, and they heard all about it from Coach Buzz Williams.

Two days after the Selection Sunday show, Williams followed his team’s NIT victory over Alcorn State with an opening statement at his postgame press conference that lasted nearly eight minutes. In that statement, Williams blasted the committee’s decision-making and even questioned its overall motives, saying it “defies logic” that A&M was left out of the field.

“The process is obviously flawed, and it is apparent that there is way more included that is unseen and unknown in the selection of the 36 at-large teams than what the public is made aware of,’‘ Williams said. “Until there is complete transparency and accountability, the system will stay broken, and this will continue to happen.”

Asked Wednesday if he had any regrets about that monologue, Williams said he did not.

“I understood going into that what was going to be said,” he said. “But if you can’t stand up for your people when you believe you should stand up for them, then I don’t believe you’re worthy of being a leader. Not a coach, just being a leader.

“I was convicted by what I said. If you noticed, I didn’t use anybody’s name. I didn’t use anybody’s institution. It was just based on what I had studied. The study over that 48-hour period was what I believed I had to do to explain to the people involved, specifically our kids.

“Do I think it’s good for my career to do that? No. Do I think it helps me get another job? No. Is it offensive to others? Do I sound like a crybaby and all of the stuff that people wrote me, texted me, DM’d me? I understood all of that. And without being condescending, if you look at my career at that moment, I’d been a head coach for 15 years, I had never done that before. But I felt as though it was right relative to the children and the families they represent. And so I don’t regret it, nor will I ever regret it.”

SEC media members voted Texas A&M as the No. 6 team in the league this season. The Aggies were 26th in voting for the preseason AP Top 25 poll, and ESPN’s Bracketology has them as a No. 9 seed for the 2023 NCAA Tournament.

SEC’s top recruit

Arkansas guard Nick Smith Jr. was the only freshman named to the All-SEC first team Wednesday. He’s the highest-rated recruit for the league this season, ending up with the No. 1 overall ranking in the 2022 class, according to 247Sports. He’s also projected as a top-five pick in next year’s NBA Draft.

Razorbacks Coach Eric Musselman was asked how Smith is dealing with the attention.

“I think he is used to playing with expectations throughout his high school career,” he said. “He has had high expectations. You know, he is a player that kind of moves on the floor effortlessly, almost like he is on skates. He is cosmetically pleasing to watch offensively with the way that he can find seams in the defense, and he is a really good shooter as well. Can play both the point guard or the off guard for us, and obviously has an incredible bright future as well.”

Alabama Coach Nate Oats was among those who unsuccessfully recruited Smith.

“Nick is a big guard with a lot of talent, a lot of ability,” Oats said. “... And I think he’s going to be an impact player in our league. I saw him predicted to be first-team All-SEC. He’s got that type of talent. And Arkansas is loaded. I’m not sure whether they’re going to play him on ball, off ball, whatever, but he can do both. He can score and he can distribute.

“But, yeah, I think he’s one of the better freshmen in the country, and I think he’ll prove that as he goes through SEC play.”

The only other freshman recognized by all-SEC voters was Alabama forward Brandon Miller, who was named to the second team. Miller, who took an official visit to Kentucky during the recruiting process, was No. 15 in the 2022 class, according to the 247Sports composite rankings.

SEC H-O-R-S-E

Vanderbilt Coach Jerry Stackhouse was an All-American at North Carolina and an 18-year NBA player. One reporter posed a question, conceding that Stackhouse would be the best player among the current SEC coaching corps but asking whether he thought one of his rivals could take him in a game of H-O-R-S-E.

Stackhouse considered that question for a few seconds.

“Probably not,” he deadpanned to laughter from the media contingent. He then paused, as if reconsidering for a moment. “No,” he said.

After giving an answer on Vanderbilt’s outlook for the future, Stackhouse revisited the question.

“Nate Oats. Maybe Nate Oats could shoot a little bit,” he said.

The Alabama coach played his college basketball at Maranatha Baptist University in Wisconsin.

Wheeler moves on

Kentucky point guard Sahvir Wheeler was asked (by a non-Kentucky-based reporter) whether the Wildcats had recovered from their shocking loss to Saint Peter’s in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last season.

“I’m over it,” he said. “The only time I talk about it is when you guys ask it. I’m just ready for y’all to get over it.”

Expand the NCAA Tournament?

Most of the SEC coaches were asked Wednesday what they thought of league commissioner Greg Sankey saying over the summer that he was willing to look into the idea of expanding the NCAA Tournament beyond 68 teams.

Florida’s Todd Golden, Mississippi State’s Chris Jans, LSU’s Matt McMahon, Arkansas’ Eric Musselman and South Carolina’s Lamont Paris were all for keeping the field at 68.

“I’m a traditionalist,” Paris said. “Obviously change can be good, but I like the tournament where it is now. I do. I just do. … The question is adding more teams, does it enhance that potentially somehow? It’s already pretty good, it seems like. Or does that do something that could disrupt the apple cart? I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s worth the risk of that.”

Tennessee’s Rick Barnes, Mississippi’s Kermit Davis, Missouri’s Dennis Gates, Vanderbilt’s Jerry Stackhouse and Georgia’s Mike White were all in favor of expansion.

“I would like to see a double, to be honest with you,” Gates said. “That’s just me, because I truly believe there are some great coaches who are left out of the tournament. There are some great players that we have not seen on that platform that we’ll now see.”

Bruce Pearl wasn’t a hard yes on either side of the argument, but he showed mild support for expansion.

“I know you just had Buzz up here before. Had Texas A&M (made the tournament), that was a team that you didn’t want to play at the end of the year because at the end of the year they were playing as good as anybody,” he said. “It’s just like Ole Miss in baseball last year. They were the last team in, and they win the national championship. Those are two pretty good arguments to be able to maybe — maybe it’s time we expand it.”

Alabama’s Nate Oats didn’t take a side, and John Calipari wasn’t asked.

Buzz Williams also didn’t weigh in on the debate. Not that it matters.

“After what I did last March, I don’t think anybody with the NCAA is going to listen to anything that I say,” he said.

Saturday

Blue-White Game

When: 6 p.m.

Where: Appalachian Wireless Arena in Pikeville

TV: SEC Network Plus (online only)

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