Scott has followed South Carolina athletics for over 40 years and provides commentary from a fan perspective. He writes a weekly newsletter (this email) year-round and a column during football season that's published each Monday on GamecockCentral.com.
Scott Davis: The Mission for the Men is to Matter
In college sports, sometimes we get an announcement that surprises us. And sometimes we get one we're already expecting.
And sometimes, we get them both at the same time.
Before the South Carolina men's basketball team even suited up for what would be its season-ending loss to Oklahoma in the SEC Tournament, athletics director Jermiah Donati had already issued a statement of support for embattled head coach Lamont Paris.
The one-time SEC Coach of the Year would be returning for a fifth season.
Given the lengthy contract extension Paris had signed after the 2023-24 season when his team made the NCAA Tournament, the coach's return had felt somewhere between likely-to-inevitable. Most of us knew the Gamecocks would have needed to turn in a truly disastrous campaign this year for a change to be made at the top of the program.
And yet…
This now-concluded season nearly was just disastrous enough. The Gamecocks limped to a 4-14 record in the SEC and finished up with a cringeworthy overall record of 13-19. Had South Carolina lost just one more game, Paris would have become only the second coach in SEC history to post three 20-loss seasons in a four-year span.
That's not the kind of history you want to be making.
The numbers – particularly in the SEC – are impossible from which to hide. Paris' program had one shining, almost inconceivably strong season in which they went 13-5 and finished second in the league.
But in his other three years at the helm outside of that race to glory in 2023-24, the team is a staggering 10-44 in SEC play. Ten-and-forty-four, folks.
Those are the kinds of numbers that can get contracts torn up and reset buttons pressed.
While most of us thought Paris would get one last crack at it next year, you couldn't be totally sure until you got the word. When the word came, it felt strangely anticlimactic.
Looks like we're giving it the old college try…again.
But for the men's program, much more is at stake than the head coach's future, or wins and losses, or attendance figures or NCAA appearances.
This drifting program needs meaning. It needs vitality. It needs a heartbeat.
Men's basketball needs to matter again.
Race for Resources
When Donati announced that Paris would remain in Columbia for the 2026-27 season, he also mentioned the word that most college AD's have suddenly found a need to work into conversations.
Investment.
In the era of NIL and the transfer portal and a dizzying amount of player movement, universities sometimes have to make decisions about which programs will be emphasized when it's time to divvy up the resources. Donati wanted to affirm to Gamecock Nation that the men's basketball team wouldn't be left behind.
"Our goal is to build a men's basketball program at South Carolina that is consistently competitive in the SEC and nationally," the AD said. "To reach our goals, it will require an increased level of investment across the program that matches these expectations. We are committed to making these critical investments."
That wasn't guaranteed.
Though men's basketball is usually either the first- or second-most important sports program at every major college around the country, it's unclear where it ranks at South Carolina in its ability to hold the attention of its fans. I'm not talking about incoming revenues here, but passion and interest.
And based purely on the hype and attention scale, men's hoops seems to have slipped to fourth in recent years behind football, women's basketball, and baseball. I think there are at least moments – like when the softball team nearly surged to the Women's College World Series last season – when other Gamecock programs may temporarily surpass it on that scale, as well.
There's no other way to say it: The men's program just isn't making an impact at the moment in terms of generating fan enthusiasm.
And there's more to it than just the never-ending losses.
This is a bigger conundrum than putting fannies in seats and selling more suites and corporate sponsorships.
This is about winning hearts and minds.
If the program is going to be revived, that has to start now.
The Blueprint
Back in the early 2010s, I did something that at the time felt like an act of charity.
I followed the Gamecock Women's Basketball team on social media. I remember Coach Dawn Staley asking the fans on the Artist Formerly Known as Twitter to try and help the program attain 5,000 followers. Though I'd followed the team only sparingly over the years, I loved Dawn.
Already, before she had delivered the first SEC or national title, I was prepared to do whatever Dawn asked of me. She'd earned my devotion.
It may be hard for you to remember this now, but Dawn inherited what was essentially a gigantic heap of smoldering ashes when she took over the women's basketball program in 2008. Her mission wasn't to bring the fan base back, it was to create one in the first place.
And she took that mission seriously.
Dawn became a fun, enjoyable and ever-present presence on social media, changing the name for South Carolina fans to "fams" to indicate this community was a family. She did interviews whenever someone asked her to do one. She showed up for South Carolina's other sports programs – remember back in 2010 when she and Steve Spurrier were spotted in a press box in Omaha, cheering on Ray Tanner's first national championship-winning team? She seemed to view selling her program as an almost religious calling.
Even before the Gamecocks became the most important program in women's basketball, they'd already built the most intense and passionate fan base in the country. It happened because of Dawn's example. The tone gets set at the top.
If the men's basketball program is looking for a blueprint towards building a fan base, it already exists just down the hall.
This program needs a zealous spokesperson who is relentless in his fervor for getting his fans to care again. Coach Paris has another season to try to build those bridges.
As for the blueprint? It's right there for the asking.
Tell me how you feel about the future of men's basketball by writing me at scottdavis@gamecockcentral.com. (Please do not reply to this email.)
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