Mississippi State Basketball: 7 candidates to replace Ben Howland as head coach

Lamont Paris

When you look at the last few hires for Mississippi State, it would actually be a bit out of the usual for them to tab one of these mid-major coaches on the rise. Before plucking Howland off his couch in 2015, their last two hires were high-major assistant coaches. Perhaps hiring one of these intriguing young mid-major coaches would be a great idea just for the change of pace.

Paris is certainly a name on the rise, ascending rapidly in coaching circles. The first decade of his career came below the D1 level, both as a player and assistant before he joined Keith Dambrot’s staff at Akron. Paris later spent some great years on Bo Ryan’s staff at Wisconsin before taking the Chattanooga head coaching job in 2017. With lots of hard work, he’s just led the Mocs back to the NCAA Tournament and has this program in fantastic shape once again.

Unusual for these types of mid-major coaches, Paris was an assistant on a pair of Final Four teams at Wisconsin. He’s recruited at a high level at a number of different types of schools. He can be a competitive recruiter in the SEC, especially after what he’s done at nearby Chattanooga. There’s no doubt that it’s a jump up from the SoCon, but that hasn’t slowed down Mike Young or Steve Forbes, both doing excellent work in the ACC after runs at SoCon schools.