Lamont Paris knew it was probably a long shot. The odds that Collin Murray-Boyles would return for a third season at South Carolina weren’t likely. Yet he still left his star player with an option.
After enduring a dismal season, Paris, entering his fourth season as the Gamecocks’ head coach, made significant changes to his roster. Of this season’s 14 scholarship players, only three — Jordan Butler, Cam Scott and Myles Stute — are from last year’s team.
With college basketball roster sizes increasing to 15, South Carolina has one scholarship left, which was originally made available for Murray-Boyles if he wanted to come back.We tried to construct the team in a way that we would have our team essentially without Collin,” Paris said. “But yet we were built in a way that if Collin did decide he was going to come back, we were even better as a group.”
However, Murray-Boyles won’t be the one filling that last spot for this upcoming season. The 6-foot-8 forward, who decided to remain in the NBA Draft, was selected ninth overall by the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday, thus beginning the next chapter of his basketball career.Which now begs the question: What will South Carolina do with the one remaining roster spot still open? Paris said it will most likely be filled “in some way, shape, or form” with another player being added. As far as what that may look like, that’s something he and his staff are figuring out as summer workouts are in full force.“I don’t think we’re on some search right now to find the savior for this next year’s team. The piece would have to make sense,” Paris said. “We talked about team chemistry and all that, and so it needs to be a person who’s going to enhance that part because we’re a couple of weeks into this at this point.”Paris added that he would like a player who “fits in really well and seamlessly.” He pondered the idea of bringing in someone who could replace Murray-Boyles’ production as the team’s leading scorer with 16.8 points per game last season.
He also thought about the possibility of having a player similar to Murray-Boyles and how that might impact his game plan for next season. Of course, Paris won’t have to worry about that now since Murray-Boyles is off to the NBA. Ultimately, though, he’s only open to making a move that’s best for South Carolina.
“Again, we’re not at a point right now where we’re looking for the savior,” Paris said. “At this point, we’ve constructed the team that we want, that we want to construct, and we’d only look to add a piece that makes complete sense.
