South Carolina Basketball: 7 candidates to replace Frank Martin as head coach

Lamont Paris

Jumping back to mid-major coaches, it might be in South Carolina’s best interests to hire a young coach inspired to make a difference, especially at a school like this. As previously mentioned, South Carolina isn’t exactly the most attractive coaching post in the SEC, even among the current openings, but it’s certainly still a place where a coach can win a bunch of games.

Paris fits the bill as an up-and-coming young coach. A native of Ohio, his D1 coaching career began under Keith Dambrot at Akron before he joined Bo Ryan’s staff at Wisconsin. After being a part of those two recent Final Four runs, he began his head coaching career at Chattanooga in 2017. After a few rebuilding years, he’s been quite successful with the Mocs, leading them back to the NCAA Tournament this season with SoCon regular season and tournament titles in his fifth season at the helm.

With this achievement, Paris is proving that he might just be ready to take that next step. South Carolina could use someone with his energy and experience; very few of these hot mid-major coaches were on Final Four staffs in the last decade. He may not be the most successful or experienced of the bunch, but he can recruit and knows the area.