COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina men's basketball coach Lamont Paris was picked as SEC coach of the year in voting by the 14 head coaches. The league announced the results on Monday.
The Gamecocks went 25-6 overall and 13-5 in SEC play this season after being picked to finish last before the season began. The finished second in the SEC and their 25 wins are the most in program history. The 13 league wins are the second most in USC men's history, behind only the 1996-97 team that won the SEC title that year.
Overall, USC had a 14 win improvement over last year's win total.
Paris, who's in his second season with the Gamecocks, is the third Gamecock coach to be named SEC Coach of the Year by league coaches, following Eddie Fogler in 1997 and Dave Odom in 2004.
His team is getting ready to play in the SEC Tournament this week. Regardless of how they perform, they'll make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2017, when they went on a miraculous run to the Final Four.
In addition to the coaching honor, guard Ta'Lon Cooper and guard Meechie Johnson were named Second Team All-SEC. Collin Murray-Boyles was named to the SEC All-Freshman team.
Meanwhile, Tennessee guard Dalton Knecht has been chosen by Southeastern Conference coaches as player of the year after averaging a league-best 21.4-points per game.
Kentucky’s Reed Sheppard is freshman of the year, Tennessee’s Zakai Zeigler was picked as the best defensive player and Kentucky’s Rob Dillingham as top sixth man.
Missouri’s Sean East III earned SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors. Knecht and Zeigler were joined on the All-SEC first-team by Alabama's Mark Sears, Auburn's Johni Broome, Florida's Zyon Pullin, Kentucky's Antonio Reeves, Mississippi State's Tolu Smith III and Texas A&M's Wade Taylor IV.
Tie votes were not broken.
