Amid the wave of college basketball coaches “parting ways” with their former employers, as athletic directors are wont to say, South Carolina’s Lamont Paris is an outlier – a coach actually receiving a new and improved contract as well as a hefty raise.

As his team was preparing for Thursday’s showdown against Arkansas in the second round of the SEC Tournament in Nashville, word leaked that the University of South Carolina’s Board of Trustees would be meeting Friday to rubber stamp a new deal for Paris that reportedly includes a six-year extension and an average salary in excess of $4 million per year.

When asked about the new deal for Paris, South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley, who was in attendance in Nashville, had words for her coaching counterpart: “I told him congrats for taking it to Ray Tanner’s wallet.”

Tanner is, of course, South Carolina’s athletic director, and the onus was on him to keep Paris in the fold. Paris’ name already had been mentioned with several openings or soon-to-be openings, which may help explain why he admitted to having approximately 1,100 unread text messages on his phone Thursday morning.

It likely was several times that number by late Thursday afternoon.

“I didn’t float my name around,” Paris said. “A lot of people were floating my name around. I guess that’s what happens this time of year. It’s fun. It’s exciting.”

Perhaps not nearly as much fun for Tanner, but he can rest easy now that the deal is all but done.

“I love where I am and they like me, too,” Paris said. “So what else was there to do but to make a good deal? But no, I’m really fortunate and blessed that I get to do this as a profession.

“I’m really excited about moving forward. This was a no-brainer at least on my part.”

Truth be told, there likely isn’t a coach anywhere in the country more deserving of such a reward than Paris, who guided the Gamecocks to a remarkable turnaround – a 15-game improvement over last year’s 11-21 slate in his first season in Columbia.

That debut was so relatively uninspiring that his second edition was tabbed for a last-place finish in the 2024 preseason SEC poll last October.

But Paris instructed his team to place that large chip upon its collective shoulder. It did and the results have been overwhelmingly positive.

Paris exhibited a knack for melding newcomers and holdovers into a cohesive unit that defied the odds time and again and by season’s end had emerged as the most surprising team in the SEC, if not the entire country.

Thursday’s victory against Arkansas improved the Gamecocks’ record to 26-6, matching the program’s record for wins in a single season, with more opportunities looming on the Gamecocks’ dance card, beginning Friday against No. 4 Auburn.

Regardless of what unfolds the rest of the way in Nashville, South Carolina will be returning to March Madness for the first time since 2017.

No more flying under the radar.

When asked when this team began to embrace the chip-on-the-shoulder approach, graduate forward B.J. Mack didn’t hesitate.

“It was at the beginning, when we saw the preseason polls,” Mack said.

Five months later, Mack and his teammates will be forever grateful for that initial lack of respect.

“Coming into the season, nobody knew us,” he said. “Now they know us.”

And Ray Tanner's wallet is paying the price.

Scott Keepfer covers Clemson athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email him at skeepfer@gannett.com and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @ScottKeepfer

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Lamont Paris contract: How South Carolina coach, Dawn Staley reacted