The Gamecock men’s basketball team is coming off a momentum-building season under head coach Lamont Paris after making the NCAA tournament for the first time in seven years.

Paris spoke to the media for the first time since the team began its summer workouts and outlined his desire to continue growing the program while giving insight to new and returning players on the roster.

“[I’m] just really excited about having this group come together and get here and learn from one another,” Paris said. “It’s a real fun part of the job and I’m really excited. It’s a good group.”

Nine players from last year’s team will return, but the team did lose some of its most pivotal pieces. Three of the four highest-scoring players from last year’s team left for various reasons. Meechie Johnson led the Gamecocks and transferred back to Ohio State, B.J. Mack ran out of eligibility as did Ta’lon Cooper, who is now playing for the Orlando Magic summer league team.

Paris praised each of those players for their contributions last year and added he sees similar traits in players from this year’s group.

“We had a lot of voices that had really good things to say last year,” Paris said. “We have the makings of another strong group of dynamic personalities that when they say something, it’ll have teeth and people will listen.”

One of the most exciting returning players on the team is sophomore Collin Murray-Boyles, who upped his game to another level near the end of the season. He averaged 10 points and led the team in rebounds, blocks and steals. He had double-digit scoring outings in 10 of the team’s final 13 games, including a career-high 31 against Vanderbilt.

Paris said Murray-Boyles is in near-peak physical form but has plenty of room to continue developing his game. One thing Paris wants to see is for Murray-Boyles to be more selfish.

“He’s naturally unselfish. That’s a great quality to have, but I’m going to encourage him to be more aggressive to generate offense for himself,” Paris said. “It’s going to take some time for him to really evolve into a guy that is looking to generate offense for himself. We’re going to need him to do some of that.”

Another player Paris praised is the team’s other member of the class of 2023 Arden Conyers. He took a redshirt year last season but is expected to play a large role with the Gamecocks this season.

Conyers is a Columbia native and attended Westwood High School where he averaged 21.4 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game in his senior season. He was the third-highest-ranked recruit in the state that year and was AAU teammates with Murray-Boyles.

“Anybody who’s following SEC basketball will be saying his name a lot,” Paris said. “He really took advantage of the redshirt year last year. It can be a difficult year, but he’s just doing a lot of good things right now. He’s a very versatile guy. He’s shown some signs of explosiveness from an athletic standpoint. He’s skilled. He can make shots. He’s got good size.”

Other key returning players include guards Myles Stute, Zachary Davis and Jacobi Wright. All three played significant roles on last year’s team and could see more responsibility this season.

“We were trying to make a commitment to bringing more experience back, more familiarity back in terms of experience with our program,” Paris said. “[I’m] just looking forward to the process of building and developing and helping these guys become better basketball players.”

South Carolina also added new pieces to the roster with hopes of filling some gaps. The new group of players is a mix of transfers and incoming freshmen, including Lexington’s own Cam Scott.

Key additions include Alabama transfer Nick Pringle, Missouri transfer Jordan Butler, Norfolk State transfer Jamarii Thomas and incoming freshman Okku Federiko. Paris said the summertime is perfect for getting acquainted with the new faces and figuring out how they fit on the team.

The team is about four weeks through their summer workout period. They will go for another four weeks and continue getting everyone familiar with the program while building chemistry.

“I thought one of the best qualities that we had was that we played well together, guys enjoyed playing with each other and played for one another,” Paris said. “A lot of that was fostered in the summer.”