Decision made on Lamont Paris’ future at South Carolina
South Carolina will bring back men’s basketball coach Lamont Paris for next season, a South Carolina athletics source confirmed with The State on Tuesday morning.
Later in the day, USC athletics director Jeremiah Donati released a statement on the decision to keep Paris and that the athletic department would be increasing its financial support to the men’s basketball program.
The decision comes after another agonizing season for the Gamecocks. South Carolina has once against sputtered to the bottom of the SEC, failing on many nights to even be competitive with its conference foes. USC lost by 34 to Arkansas in early January. It fell by 23 at Texas A&M. Days later, the Gamecocks were embarrassed by 47 points at home against Florida.
Though South Carolina’s season isn’t over — it closed out the regular season Saturday with a win at Ole Miss and now heads to Nashville for a Wednesday game in the SEC Tournament — the Gamecocks (13-18, 4-14 SEC) are trending toward missing the NCAA Tournament for the second-straight season.
If South Carolina chose to part with Paris, it would have owed him a buyout exceeding $12 million — a figure that comes from 65% of his remaining salary ($18.5 million).
While Paris was earning $4 million this season, that still wasn’t enough to put his salary in the top half among SEC coaches. Paris is slated to earn $4.25 million next year.
That salary figure was negotiated two years ago, when former Athletic Director Ray Tanner gave his second-year basketball coach a lucrative extension during a March Madness run and while Paris was being linked to the vacant Ohio State job.
At the time, Paris was the lowest-paid coach in the SEC ($2.3 million salary) guiding the Gamecocks to of the best seasons in program history. That year, USC tied a school record with 26 regular-season wins, rose to No. 15 in the country and easily earned an NCAA Tournament berth, eventually losing to Oregon in the first round.
Since that March Madness appearance, South Carolina’s success has cratered.
Last season, even with future Top-10 NBA Draft pick Collin Murray-Boyles on the roster, the Gamecocks went 12-20 overall (2-16 SEC) and finished dead last in the conference. Easy to blame was the Gamecocks’ NIL resources, which sources told The State was under $2 million for the entire team and the lowest amount in the SEC.
“We’ve worked tirelessly since then to increase that (NIL budget) and put them in a much better position,” South Carolina AD Jeremiah Donati told The State last April. “It will be substantially more than it was last year.”
Sources confirmed to The State that Paris and his staff were allotted more NIL money for the 2025-26 roster, but it’s unclear if the additional funds were enough to close the gap with every other SEC school, which were likely also given a larger budget.
While that allowed the Gamecocks bring to back 2024 USC star Meechie Johnson, they failed to construct a competitive roster. South Carolina did not get a point guard in the portal and weren’t able to make gains with the three big men who transferred in.
The Gamecocks been the worst-rebounding team in the SEC. They’ve been the worst 3-pointing team in the conference. They block fewer shots than every other SEC team. On and on.
No matter what Paris tried this season, there wasn’t enough talent to make a difference. Perhaps that’ll change next season, but it’s going to have to start with a larger NIL budget this offseason.
This story was originally published March 10, 2026 at 9:43 AM with the headline "Decision made on Lamont Paris’ future at South Carolina."
