Paris Named NABC District 20 Coach of the Year

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The National Association of Basketball Coaches announced their 2023-24 NABC Division I All-District Teams and District Coaches of the Year on Tuesday. Second-year head coach Lamont Paris was named District 20 Coach of the Year.

The All-District honors are voted on by NABC-member coaches across NCAA Division I.

Paris, who was named the SEC’s Coach of the Year by the league’s coaches and the AP, has helped lead the team back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2017 this season. He and has staff have helped engineer the greatest single-season turnaround in program history, improving the team’s win total by 15 games from last season to this season.

South Carolina’s 25 regular season wins are a new program record and the team’s 26 overall wins are tied with the 2016-17 Final Four team for the most single-season wins in program history. Paris becomes just the sixth coach in program history to lead his team to the NCAA Tournament (Frank McGuire, Bill Foster, Eddie Fogler, Dave Odom and Frank Martin).

Ahead of its round of 64 matchup with 11^th-seeded Oregon on Thursday, the Gamecocks enter the matchup with a 26-7 overall record and a 13-5 record in SEC games as the team T-2^nd in one of the best, deepest leagues in the country. The 13th SEC wins are the second most in program history behind only the 1996-97 SEC Champion squad (went 15-1 to win first and only league crown in Gamecock history). The Gamecocks also won a game in the SEC Tournament for the first time since 2018 with an 80-66 victory over Arkansas in round two back on March 14.

The SEC and Big 12 tied for the most NCAA Tournament bids in the country by a single conference with eight schools each selected for March Madness.

The Gamecocks won seven SEC games on the road this season, tying the 1996-97 team for the most SEC victories away from home in a single season. Carolina boasts an impressive 12-4 record in true road and neutral site games this season. That’s the best mark in the SEC and the T-2^nd best mark in the nation amongst the Power Six with No.2/2 Houston and No. 3/3 Purdue.

The Gamecocks are one of just 18 teams in the country with multiple top-10 wins and one of five teams in the nation with a top-five true road win. Carolina beat No. 6/6 Kentucky 79-62 at home on Jan. 23 and No. 5/5 Tennessee, 63-59, in Knoxville on Jan. 30. Per Elias Sports Bureau, it was the first time the Gamecocks had defeated a pair of top-10 teams in a three-game stretch since 1968. Carolina’s win over the Vols was the team’s first AP Top-Five road victory since defeating No. 3 Kentucky, 72-66, on March 2, 1997.

The Gamecocks returned to the top-25 for the first time since 2017 back in Week 14 on Feb. 5 and have remained there the past seven weeks and will likely finish the regular season ranked in the AP Top-25 Poll for the first time since being ranked No. 14 in the final AP Poll of 1998. The Gamecocks have been ranked as high as No. 11 in both major polls this season, the highest top-25 mark for the program since being slotted 11th in Week 7 (Dec. 29) of the 1997-98 season.

Carolina and Oregon square off at 4 p.m. (ET) on Thursday at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh part of the NCAA Midwest Regional. Andrew Catalon (pxp), Steve Lappas (analyst) and Evan Washburn (reporter) will be on the call for the TNT broadcast. Paris will attempt to join Frank McGuire and Frank Martin as the only coaches in program history to lead the Gamecocks to victory in the NCAA Tournament.

NABC District 20

First Team

Johni Broome – Auburn

Dalton Knecht – Tennessee

Antonio Reeves – Kentucky

Mark Sears – Alabama

Wade Taylor IV – Texas A&M

Second Team

Jonas Aidoo – Tennessee

Walter Clayton Jr. – Florida

Matthew Murrell – Mississippi

Zyon Pullin – Florida

Tolu Smith III – Mississippi State

Coach of the Year: Lamont Paris – South Carolina

The full list of NABC All-District Teams and District Coaches of the year can be found by, clicking here.

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