(Photo Credit: South Carolina Athletics)
NASHVILLE — South Carolina coach Lamont Paris is getting sick of falling just short.
Paris’s team has lost back-to-back games against No. 1 Auburn and Vanderbilt by the same score of 66-63, both of which provided opportunity after opportunity for the Gamecocks to find a way to win. They just didn’t, though. Either time.
“I’m always optimistic, that’s why I’m frustrated to some degree,” Paris said. “Only because my expectation is to play well enough to win these games. If I had a high school team, the state champs of the state of Tennessee, and I was coaching them against Vanderbilt I probably wouldn’t have much frustration if we lost because my expectation wouldn’t be to perform in a way to win the game.”
The second-year South Carolina head coach has high expectations for his group despite their winless start to SEC play and NET ranking that sits in the 90’s. Paris knows the challenges ahead for his team that was ranked 11th in the SEC’s preseason poll, but is of the mindset that his group can turn things around.
His team did that after losing two of its first three SEC games last season and ended up in the NCAA Tournament, but this season’s climb appears to be significantly more challenging. The Gamecocks are 0-4 in league play with nine games against ranked opponents left to go, including seven in a row. Paris is focused on his own group rather than the gauntlet ahead, though.
“We have been about and are about growth and improvement,” Paris said. “We have seen some things over the last couple games that represent growth and improvement.”
South Carolina knows that the 25 turnovers that it accumulated against Vanderbilt are an example of a step back in some aspects. At this stage, it feels as if each step back becomes more and more monumental, particularly without Jamarii Thomas and Myles Stute in the lineup. Thomas is out for an extended period of time with a right knee sprain while Stute is out indefinitely due to a blood clot in his leg.
Paris knows that both would help his team, which is now prone to a lack of perimeter scoring and a dependence on star forward Collin Murray-Boyles. He’s not writing it off as the only reason for his group’s struggles, though.
“I’m optimistic,” Pais said. “We’re [competing] without Jamarii Thomas, who plays the most minutes of anybody on our entire team and is our leading scorer, and Myles Stute so you’re down two starters. Not that that’s any sort of excuse. Guys have to play. Morris [Ugusuk] stepped up and played well offensively today, we just need more guys to be able to do that.”
Paris may have found something in Ugusuk, who went for a career-high on Wednesday, but he’s still searching for it all to come together. That will have to happen fast.
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