South Carolina football head coach Shane Beamer speaks to the media at the 2023 SEC Football Kickoff, Thursday July 20,2023 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Nashville,Tn . (Jimmie Mitchell/SEC)
In South Carolina, Paris joins Staley’s women to make the Gamecocks a basketball school.
Columbia, South Carolina (AP) Dawn Staley knew about the biggest surprise in college basketball before most of the rest of us.
South Carolina’s women’s coach learned the inside scoop after speaking with her counterpart, second-year coach Lamont Paris, when the men’s team returned from their August trip to the Bahamas.
“We’re going to be good,” Paris assured her flatly.
“When a coach says that,” Staley explained, “they know.”
Everyone in the sport now knows.
South Carolina was ranked last in the Southeastern Conference after going 11-21 in Paris’ first season, but it is now 18-3 and performing nearly as well as Staley’s undefeated team.
Even some of the older Gamecocks are surprised. Josh Gray, who has been on the team for three seasons, joked with fellow veteran Jacobi Wright, “Can you believe we’re 18-3?” Gray asked. “But we’re still keeping our heads down.”
Paris’ team won 63-59 over No. 5 Tennessee on Tuesday night, its second upset in a week. The previous Tuesday, the Gamecocks dominated then-sixth-ranked Kentucky, 79-62.
It was the first time they had defeated two Top-10 opponents in a three-game span since 1968, when the program competed in the ACC.
“They have a lot of heart. “It’s a passionate group,” Paris explained. “They want the spoils of whatever happens if you do what we’ve done before. They’re fighters, tough, and want to win big as a group.”
That’s apparent in their play, especially on defense. The Gamecocks held Kentucky’s best offense, 29 points below its average.
The Vols were averaging nearly 80 points a game and were held below 45% from the field (21 of 58) for the first time in seven SEC games.
