Wisconsin basketball former assistant a real candidate for Naismith Coach Of The Year

Former Wisconsin basketball assistant making headlines at South Carolina:

Former Wisconsin basketball assistant coach Lamont Paris is surprising everybody in just his second year as head coach at South Carolina.

The Gamecocks went on the road and defeated No. 5 Tennessee earlier this week. The win improved the team to 18-3 on the season and 6-2 in SEC play. While somehow still unranked entering this week, the team is in the midst of a dominant four-game win streak including this week vs. No. 5 Tennessee, a 13-point win over Arkansas, a 17-point blowout over then-No. 6 Kentucky and an eight-point home win over Missouri.

Whether South Carolina is a true national contender this season is one conversation. The other is that Paris took over a middling program with one NCAA Tournament appearance in 20 years (a Final Four run in 2016-2017) and took only one sub-par year to already have the program at 18-3 and a force in the SEC.

Paris was a Wisconsin assistant from 2010-2017 under Bo Ryan and Greg Gard. He left for the Chattanooga job, where he was from 2017-2022. Then came the move to South Carolina which already seems to be paying dividends.