Within the wake of an historic season, South Carolina is making certain coach Lamont Paris stays in Columbia.
In response to ESPN sources, South Carolina has agreed to a brand new six-year contract with Paris, who received the SEC’s Coach of the 12 months award in 2023-24.
The deal will prolong him by way of the 2029-30 season and common greater than $4 million yearly, per ESPN sources. The deal is pending board of trustees approval that is set for tomorrow, per sources.
Paris’ identify emerged within the Ohio State search and certain would have in others, and the deal ensures he’ll be off the market because the teaching carousel heats up within the upcoming weeks.
The decisive transfer by athletic director Ray Tanner marks a robust dedication to males’s basketball at South Carolina, which has made only one males’s NCAA basketball event since 2004.
This yr, Paris has South Carolina on the cusp of its first NCAA look since 2017. South Carolina has gone 25-6 this season and a projected No. 5 seed within the NCAA event.
That got here after South Carolina was picked final within the SEC within the preseason. The Gamecocks completed one-game behind outright regular-season champion Tennessee amongst 4 groups tied with a 13-5 SEC report. Paris entered this season because the lowest-paid coach within the SEC, making $2.3 million this yr.
Paris grew to become the primary South Carolina coach to win the league’s coach of the yr, because the 25 wins have been essentially the most in an everyday season at school historical past at South Carolina.
With that success got here some exterior curiosity. Paris’ expertise within the Huge Ten as an assistant coach led to curiosity from Ohio State in its open job. It was anticipated as jobs open across the nation that he’d obtain extra calls.
Paris got here to South Carolina after 5 seasons at Chattanooga, which included an NCAA event look in his ultimate yr there. South Carolina went 11-21 in his first season there final yr, and this yr superior to as excessive as No. 11 within the Related Press ballot.