University of Tennessee at Chattanooga vice chancellor and athletic director David Blackburn has said multiple times this week that new men’s basketball coach Lamont Paris “knows what good looks like.”
In a Wisconsin system that wasn’t about getting the highest-profile prospects, the Badgers did just fine in getting players in and developing them over their careers. A lot of that comes from the scouting done in recruiting – finding players who may not have all of the stars yet have a desire as well as the ability to keep getting better.
The biggest and best example was current Charlotte Hornets forward Frank Kaminsky, who went from averaging 1.8 points per game as a freshman and shooting 29 percent from 3-point range to scoring 18.8 points per game on 42 percent shooting from long range, helping the Badgers to a 36-4 record and a national runner-up finish in 2015 and earning national player of the year honors. That team also featured Sam Dekker, currently a guard for the Houston Rockets.
Paris was involved with the recruitment of Kaminsky and was the lead recruiter for current Wisconsin senior Nigel Hayes, Bronson Koenig and Vitto Brown, key contributors on the Badgers’ Sweet 16 team this season, the program’s sixth in the new UTC coach’s seven years in Madison.
Recruiting is all about building relationships, as Paris noted in his opening news conference. And by the reactions of former Wisconsin players after the announcement of his new job, it seems he built some strong relationships over the years.
“Let’s just say Chattanooga is in good hands,” Hayes tweeted. “Great coach, better person.”
Dekker: “Couldn’t be more excited for LP! Hard work pays off, Chattanooga got a good one in him. Very proud!”
Paris’s strongest connections have been to the Midwest, with five players on the roster from Ohio. That will have to be adjusted in some way for obvious reasons – UTC isn’t Wisconsin as a national brand – but that only means he’ll have to get acclimated to the South region, which will be an adjustment.
The Badgers had as many players from Belgium (Andy Van Vliet) in 2016-17 as they did from the South (Aleem Ford, Lawrenceville, Ga., who redshirted this season).
“A big part of recruiting is knowing where your bread is buttered,” Paris said Tuesday. “I’m going to find the pockets where I have a strong connection and continue to recruit those areas hard and be selective, but this region is where the bulk of the players are familiar with this program, that recognize and understand what this program has done and what it stands for, and at the same time, it’s more accessible for them to reach campus.
“That’s probably where the area of success lies.”
The Mocs have five scholarship players who played in games last season returning. In addition, guards Andrew Fleming and David Jean-Baptiste redshirted last year, and the previous coaching staff felt good about the chances to getting a sixth year for forward Chuck Ester, who tore an ACL and missed the entire season. Four players – guards Jalen Crutcher and Terry Nolan Jr. and forwards Joan Duran and Demarcus Mitchell – are signed for next season, although the first two have requested releases from their national letters of intent.
Paris had planned to meet with those players Thursday, but either way he knows that holes will have to be filled. Players who accounted for 68 percent of the team’s minutes are gone, and whether it’s the players in the program or those heading to Chattanooga this offseason, there is time to be had for those who want it.
“I like guys that have a pretty high basketball IQ,” Paris said. “Their natural feel for the game is pretty high, and I like guys that compete at a high level.
“I’m not used to coaching effort, so I like guys that know how to be ready to play, and guys that are coachable.”
That’s what good looks like.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.