Lamont Paris Talks About His Team Fighting Through Adversity Late Vs. Ole Miss

South Carolina men's basketball team survived a nail-biter at home against Ole Miss and Lamont Paris talked about the ability to survive the punches.

South Carolina fought through an "uncharacteristic" second half and through adversity to secure its 20th win of the season on Tuesday night, defeating a tenacious Ole Miss Rebels squad. In his post-game press conference, Lamont Paris had a chance to address the media on what all took place in the game's final 15 minutes.

One of those moments he was referring to was how they defended Ole Miss's best shooter, saying:

"It was unbelievable the route they took guarding their best shooter; it wasn't the route we would normally take. I think another one was we got screened and stayed screened, permanently screened, it seemed like, and you're allowed to get screened, teams are going to screen you, but you're not allowed to stay screened, and we stayed permanently screened," Paris explained. "[A] couple shots I didn't even recognize, I'm not even mad at them, I've just never seen that shot [from] guys and told the guys in the locker room I didn't know how to act if he should be mad or start break dancing."

Lamont Paris hugs guard Myles Stute following their win over the Ole Miss Rebels (6th Feb., 2024) / Jeff Blake-USA TODAY Sports

When asked about the message to the team during the last 15-minute stretch where things seemingly weren't going their way, Lamont recalled saying:

"Just survive the punches, round it up, tighten it up defensively," he lamented. "We were at that point [where] the body of work is what it is, and you have to find a way to get through it. I was not overreacting; I didn't want to overreact because we had to do something else next."

Coach Paris also said he likes to let his guys learn by doing; as easy as it is to call timeout as the head coach, they must do it themselves and work their way through it collectively. 

"It's a resilient group. I've said that before; they believe they know how to win. I think that's an important characteristic that people probably don't talk enough about; they know how to do some things to end up on the right side," Lamont said. "To do that against a team that's also done that - is a significant achievement."

While it wasn't always pretty, Coach Paris understands you will have games like this and stated how proud he was of his team to show their resilience continuously, and their best basketball is yet to come.

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