COLUMBIA, S.C. — Lamont Paris spoke to the public for the first time as USC Men’s Basketball coach on Thursday afternoon, hours after the USC Board of Trustees voted to approve a five year, $12 million contract for him.
As coach Lamont Paris and the University of South Carolina tip off for a new era of men’s basketball, we spoke with fans about the selection of the new coach.
“I think it will be good to have a new face in there,” Bennett Taylor said.
“I was just expecting more if we were going to get rid of Frank,” Tom Becker said.
“He brings a new fresh attitude to our team,” Mateo Villacreses said. Becker rebutting, saying, “It just didn’t meet my expectations.”
“I think he could really turn our program around,” Villacreses said.
Becker says he was let down with the hire. “I thought the hiring was pretty disappointing. I thought Frank was doing a good job.”
Everyone we spoke with agreed on one thing, however: The need to increase fan support and tickets sales for games.
“Having a big stadium like Colonial Life gives you the potential to have big games,” Taylor said. “When there’s not a lot of people in that stadium, it seems more empty than it is, and that does not help the home atmosphere.”
“They need to get people to actually want to come to the games, put a good product on the floor so people actually come,” Matt Vanderwagon said.
There’s one more thing the agree on: The need to boost recruiting efforts.
“Frank Martin wasn’t doing a great job of keeping in-state recruits,” Becker said. “If we can improve in that area, we can get better recruits overall.”
“The main thing we need to do is recruit better,” Vanderwagon said. “I don’t think Frank recruited well.”
Paris will make $2.2 million in his first year, with a step increase of $100,000 each year, with him making $2.6 million in the final year, which would be the 2026-2027 season. The deal also includes incentive bonuses for reaching the postseason.
Paris, 47, also becomes the first African American to be hired as USC’s men’s basketball head coach in program history.
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