The South Carolina men’s basketball team has started the 2025-26 season 3-0. Despite the Gamecocks bringing in 12 new players, the roster has come together for early season wins over Presbyterian, Southern Miss and North Carolina A&T.
One of these new transfers is junior forward Elijah Strong who spent two years at Boston College before committing to the Gamecocks on April 13.
As a freshman, Strong averaged 2.7 points in nearly seven minutes per game, with one start against Clemson. In that game, Strong scored 14 points on 6/9 shooting, including two 3-pointers.
The following year, he played in 27 games and started 19 times. He increased his scoring average to 9.6 points while also grabbing 4.1 rebounds a game and shooting 36% from three.
Strong set his career-high in both points and rebounds against Temple, where he had 25 points and 13 rebounds for the first double-double of his collegiate career.
While at Boston College, Strong and the rest of the team went 32-35 in two years and failed to win more than eight conference games in a single season. Strong said knowing what the feeling of losing is helped motivate him in the offseason to improve.
“I've been on the losing side of things, and I know what losing looks like,” Strong said “So, to know what that feels like, and to not do it again and not want that to happen again, it's definitely a different type of edge and a different type of hunger.”
When it comes to the offensive side of the ball, special assistant Carey Rich praised strong for fitting well into head coach Lamont Paris' system.
“His ability to not only play with his back to the basket on the block, but he also plays from the elbow," Rich said. “But most importantly, for coach Paris in this system, being able to shoot from the 3-point line is huge. So he has all of those things.”
Strong’s offensive game shares strong similarities to former Gamecock forward BJ Mack, who played for South Carolina for one season in 2023-24.
Both players share the same ability to comfortably take and knock down threes, with Mack and Strong both shooting over 34% from behind the arc in their careers.
By having a forward who can be a threat from outside the paint, Paris can space the floor more evenly. In addition to being comfortable shooters, their strong stature allows them to play more in the post despite both players standing at just 6-foot-8.
The two don’t just share similar builds or skill sets, as both are from Charlotte, North Carolina and knew of each other but didn't really communicate. Yet once Strong committed to Wofford in 2022, he said the pair began to get to know each other for nearly that whole year.
Strong also said he remembers seeing Mack play Carolina Courts, a recreational center in Indian Trail, North Carolina that hosts AAU tournaments and camps for basketball players in the area.
The pair was set to become teammates for 2023-24 season at Wofford for Strong's freshman year, but Mack transferred to South Carolina and Strong de-committed from the Terriers and ended up at Boston College.
Strong said he knows about the similarities in both of their games, and a lot of that comes from watching Mack when he was at Wofford. Even though they never took the floor together, Strong said he modeled aspects of his game after Mack.
“BJ is definitely a guy that I kind of locked in on,” Strong said. “I watch a lot of his film because he's a really talented player ... I have inherited some of that from him, because (I was) watching him at Wofford.”
One aspect of Strong’s game that he worked on over the summer was his defense, saying that he knows he can be a weapon on offense but knowing he needs to show that he can stay on the floor as a valuable defender.
“I can do a lot of things offensively … but defensively, it's always been the question.” Strong said. “That's what I've been harping on this whole entire summer.”
Strong said this new hunger from the past two seasons helped play a role in his improvement over the summer, as well as maturing throughout his college career.
“I've definitely matured since I've left Boston College,” Strong said. “Like keeping my body right, and doing the extra things, and having extra effort and stuff like that. Which is why my mindset has changed, which is probably why it was easier for me to get through the summer.”
Rich and assistant coach Tanner Bronson also praised Strong for being one the more vocal players on the team, something that fans will notice right away when they watch him play.
“I think he's very vocal,” Bronson said. “As you get to meet him, you'll know he loves to talk. He's got a great personality. I think the fans are really gonna enjoy him, because he'll show his personality.”
Strong said it's easy to be one of the vocal leaders on the court because of how much he enjoys playing basketball and competing.
“I'm looking at it right now. This is what brings me happiness,” Strong said. ”And as long as this brings me happiness, that's as long as I'm gonna be the loudest on the court."