NCAA Basketball: 3 takeaways from GG Jackson’s decision to join South Carolina
Lamont Paris is recruiting smarter, not harder
Lamont Paris has hit a big home run on recruiting trail on the recruiting trail by keeping GG Brown in his home state. Not only is Brown from the Palmetto State, Hayden Brown and Zach Davis are also natives while Daniel Hankins-Sanford is from the neighboring state of North Carolina. Moving Ebrima Dibba from Myrtle Beach at Coastal Carolina to Columbia was no small feat, either. Surely, playing on a bigger stage played a role as Paris makes his own debut of sorts at the Power “6” level.
Paris is making moves already in his first year as the Gamecocks’ head coach. He joins the SEC coaching ranks after spending the past five seasons leading the Chattanooga Mocs to their first regular season title and first NCAA Tournament berth since 2016 in 2021-22. He led the Mocs to a record of 65-29 in the past three seasons including their 27-8 mark of a year ago.
27 wins a season ago was the second-highest win total in school history, but Paris will have a different beast on his hands as he looks to put things together quickly in the SEC as the first African American coach in men’s basketball history. He’ll have his work cut out for him as he looks to rebuild a roster with just five returners from a season ago.
Next. 10 key class of 2023 recruiting storylines. dark
The pressure will be on Paris for the Gamecocks to perform, especially with such a high-profile name like GG Jackson in the fold. He’s shown he can get things going in a hurry as rumors became reality rather quickly in the college basketball world.