Lamont Paris Talks Selection Sunday, Looking Ahead To The NCAA Tournament

The head coach for South Carolina's men's basketball team spoke to the media about what's next for his team after their SEC Tournament exit.

The head coach for South Carolina's men's basketball team spoke to the media about what's next for his team after their SEC Tournament exit.

After getting knocked out of the SEC Men's Basketball Tournament by the Auburn Tigers in the quarterfinal round on Friday afternoon, Lamont Paris and the South Carolina Gamecocks have one more championship race they'll be able to participate in beginning next week: March Madness. Although it's not how they wanted conference play to end, Lamont Paris admitted after the Gamecocks' loss to the Tigers that there is a hidden silver lining to being home for the weekend.

"We'd like to win this conference tournament, but the silver lining in it is that we got a couple guys banged up. You know Myles Stute, as you noticed today, was not dressed up, and so that's more time for guys like him. Ta'Lon [Cooper] looked like he was banged up a little bit today and, so I didn't have him back in it towards the end of the game. And so I think what it does is give guys some time to rest up and heal up and get treatment and recover."

Looking back on their game against Auburn, Paris conveyed that the team is at a point in the season where you have to flush every result quickly, good or bad. He also doesn't want his team to get lost in one game's outcome, considering all of the good things they've accomplished this season.

"By the grace of the basketball gods, they're going to call our name on Sunday, and we'll be elated about that. We'll rejoice in that moment. We're still building here. That's been a thing for us. I think that's been the general theme. I've talked about that a whole bunch, and what a tremendous accomplishment it will be for this group to be able to play a game or more in the NCAA tournament. So we'll find out where we go, [and] we'll rejoice in that."

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