{"id":56913,"date":"2025-08-04T04:23:20","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T04:23:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/56913\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T04:23:20","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T04:23:20","slug":"hes-a-mastermind-south-carolina-transfer-talks-joining-lamont-paris-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/56913\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018He\u2019s a mastermind\u2019: South Carolina transfer talks joining Lamont Paris\u2019 program"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"https:\/\/img.particlenews.com\/image.php?url=3Iq5Ia_13S7Gg4M00\"New South Carolina men’s basketball transfer commit Elijah Strong (@ElijahStrong35_ on Twitter\/X)<\/p>\n

Elijah Strong<\/a> joined South Carolina\u2019s basketball team in April after spending three seasons at Boston College. The forward\u2019s time in the ACC exposed Strong to high-level basketball in college.<\/p>\n

It also exposed Strong to South Carolina head coach Lamont Paris\u2019 coaching from the opposing side.<\/p>\n

Strong faced off against Paris\u2019 Gamecocks during the 2024-25 season. In a game where South Carolina left Boston, MA, with a 73-51 win, Strong recorded 5 points, including five rebounds and two assists. The game went so well for the Gamecocks that Strong watched it over and over again in the locker room.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter that game, I watched that game in my compression shirt right in the locker room like five times,\u201d Strong told GamecockCentral. \u201cFully. I didn\u2019t leave the locker room until 1 a.m., and I was really wondering how they beat us. He\u2019s a mastermind. Like, he had an answer for everything we threw at him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Get the inside scoop on all things Gamecocks for just $1 for 7 days\u2014lock in this special offer!<\/a><\/p>\n

The game partially played a factor in Strong\u2019s decision to come to South Carolina after entering the transfer portal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt clueless during that game, and looking back at it, I\u2019m like, okay, this is (how they won),\u201d Strong said. \u201cAnd being here right now, I was like, \u2018Ok, I see why they did so good versus us.’\u201d<\/p>\n

The December game also seemingly put Strong on Paris\u2019 radar. Upon entering the portal, that\u2019s when conversations began about joining South Carolina.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was like, \u2018We can help you.\u2019 You have no idea how good you can be if you come play for me,\u201d Strong said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m already starting to feel that two months into playing for him. He\u2019s already developed me into such a better player than what I did leaving the ACC. That\u2019s something you can\u2019t ask for more in life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Strong said he uses basketball not just to play the sport, but for the development of himself as a person.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can put the ball in the net, but how are you in life? And that\u2019s what Coach Paris also emphasizes a lot,\u201d Strong said. \u201cThe ball will end up stopping bouncing, so just developing life skills, like having responsibilities. Can you wake up, get yourself breakfast, before you go to work, even though work right now is going to lift weights? Can you be on time for film? That\u2019s being on time for a business meeting in my eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another significant factor in Strong\u2019s decision to attend South Carolina was its proximity to his hometown of Charlotte, NC. As a high school player for Myers Park, Strong helped lead the Mustangs to a 4A State Championship, where he was named Most Outstanding Player.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up in Charlotte, you hear about the UNCs, you hear about the Dukes, and you don\u2019t really talk about South Carolina,\u201d Strong said. \u201cBut after their recent success with Lamont as their head coach, it was an easy transition from \u2018Ok, I grew up in Charlotte, now I can come play basketball in Columbia.\u2019 And it just all made sense to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Discuss South Carolina basketball on The Insiders Forum!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New South Carolina men’s basketball transfer commit Elijah Strong (@ElijahStrong35_ on Twitter\/X) Elijah Strong joined South Carolina\u2019s basketball…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56914,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[402,398,400,401,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-56913","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-basketball","11":"tag-ncaabasketball","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}