South Carolina has reportedly “zeroed in” on a new Men's Basketball Head Coach according to CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein. After 10 seasons under Frank Martin, the Gamecocks will reportedly be led by a new face in 2022: UT Chatanooga coach Lamont Paris. According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, it’s a 5-year deal. Paris led his squad to a 1st place regular-season finish and a conference championship in the SoCon this year. His team was narrowly eliminated, 54-53, in the first round of the NCAA tournament after the 13-seeded Mocs gave 4-seeded Illinois all they could handle. Paris started his coaching career as an assistant at The College of Wooster in 1997-98, where he spent his collegiate playing careers. He quickly moved up the assistant ranks until he landed with legendary coach, Bo Ryan at Wisconsin, where he coached from 2010-to 2017. He took over UT-Chatanooga in 2017-18 and has compiled an 87–70 (.554) record in 5 seasons with the program. It is notable that he had a bit of a rebuild after many players left during the coaching change when he took over, and over the last 3 seasons Paris and the Mocs were 65-27 (.706). We will have plenty more analysis on this soon.