South Carolina, Paris joining Staley’s women in making the Gamecocks a basketball school

South Carolina head coach Lamont Paris is congratulated by a fan while he waits to be interviewed after upsetting Kentucky during an NCAA college basketball game Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024, in Columbia, S.C. South Carolina won 79-62. (AP Photo/Artie Walker Jr.)

(AP) — Leave it to Dawn Staley to know before most everyone else about the biggest surprise in college basketball.

South Carolina’s women’s coach got the inside scoop after talking with her counterpart, second-year coach Lamont Paris, when the men’s team returned from their August trip in the Bahamas.

“We’re going to be good,” Paris told her flatly.

“When you have a coach saying that,” Staley said, “they know.”

Now, everyone in the sport knows, too.

Picked last in the Southeastern Conference after going 11-21 in Paris’ debut season, South Carolina is 18-3 and rolling along almost as strongly as Staley’s undefeated group.

Even some older Gamecocks are surprised. Josh Gray, who’s been with the team three seasons, joked with fellow veteran Jacobi Wright: “Can you believe we’re 18-3?” Gray asked. “But we’re still keeping our heads down.”

Paris’ team pulled off its second stunner in a week when it defeated No. 5 Tennessee 63-59 on Tuesday night. The Tuesday before, the Gamecocks dominated then-sixth-ranked Kentucky 79-62.

It was the first time they beat two Top-10 opponents in a three-game stretch since 1968 when the program played in the ACC.

“They got a lot of heart. It’s a passionate group,” Paris said. “They want the spoils of whatever happens when you do what we’ve done already. They’re fighters, they’re tough, they want to win badly as a group.”

South Carolina is poised for its first trip to the Top 25 since 2017 and, at 6-2 in the SEC, only a game out of first place.

The men’s and women’s teams have combined for a 38-3 mark, the best in Division I. It’s arguably the most attention on the two programs since 2017 when the men reached their only Final Four and Staley’s women captured the first of two national championships.