Why South Carolina transfer forward Elijah Strong is "Coach Paris' ideal post player"

This offseason, South Carolina basketball coach Lamont Paris has made a couple of references to his team two years ago when describing the 2025-2026 version of the Gamecocks. For those who don’t remember, the 2023-2024 team tied a program record for wins and finished tied-for-second in the regular season SEC standings. That March, USC made the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2016-2017 Final Four run.

Last week, multiple Carolina assistants and players reiterated the comparisons to that 26-win group. One of the common refrains came in the form of an interesting player comp.

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This offseason, the Gamecocks added junior transfer portal forward Elijah Strong from Boston College. In many ways, he is a similar player archetype to BJ Mack, who was second on the team in scoring and rebounding.

Mack’s listed playing size was 6-8 and 260 pounds. Strong’s is 6-8, 250. Both players are big-bodied stretch fours who could get some minutes at the five in certain matchups. They each use their size to set good screens for teammates and to gain separation when operating in the post. Both Strong and Mack have comfortable and smooth outside shots. Neither are supreme athletes but help make up for it with offensive versatility and positional skill.

The two big men are also both from Charlotte, North Carolina. Like Mack before him, Strong expressed last week the significance of playing at the closest power conference program to home even after being passed up by the North Carolina schools out of high school. “I wasn’t recruited by North Carolina. I wasn’t recruited by Duke. And I wasn’t recruited by Wake Forest,” he said. “It’s a blessing, honestly. My family can make it to most of my games…CLA being right down the street, they’re going to be packing out that stadium.”

If things work out for Strong like they did for Mack, that will be a good thing for the Gamecocks. Mack averaged 13.6 points per game and earned about one-third of his points at the 3-point arc. Along with veteran point guard Ta’Lon Cooper, Mack was one of just two players to start every game that season en route to the NCAA Tournament.

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Carey Rich, a South Carolina basketball legend and current special assistant to the head coach, shared some of the coaching staff’s excitement about Strong.

“[Strong] is going to be huge for us,” he said. “He’s probably Coach Paris’ ideal post player because of his ability to not only play with his back to the basket from the block and also play from the elbow, but most importantly for Coach Paris and his system, he’s been able to shoot from the 3-point line.”

A separate team source talked up Strong’s shooting this offseason. During a portion of practice made available for the media on Thursday, his shot looked smooth. In a shooting drill, he made more shots than almost anyone on the team.

Rich also described Strong as an essential personality for a Lamont Paris-coached team. “He has some fire in his belly,” Rich said. “There will never be a dull moment with Elijah Strong. He is ultra-competitive…it was a perfect match for us.”

Strong feels like South Carolina was a perfect match for him, too. “When you’ve got a coach like Lamont Paris who will instill nothing but confidence in you…this just meshes so well,” he said. “LP does a great job of showing me that I’m capable of doing the things I can do to help the team within this offense.

“You need forwards who can think well,” Strong added.

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Strong has a chance to be a major part of that Gamecock offense this season. When thinking of the other side of the floor, a somewhat below-the-rim post player can raise concerns about defense.

However, Rich says South Carolina’s coaches have a plan in place to maximize the junior forward’s strengths while minimizing his weaknesses. That stems from a coaching philosophy (one held by many but popularized by NFL legend Bill Belichick) that emphasizes what a player can do, rather than worrying about what he can’t do.

“The first thing we do is accept the fact that not every player can be an all-conference defensive player,” Rich told GamecockCentral. “There will be one or two players who have a defensive wart or two. What we have to do as a team is cover that by being connected, by communicating, by having each other’s backs, and by recognizing some deficiencies.”

At practice on Thursday, Strong was one of the most vocal players in the gym. His teammates also spoke highly of his personality and leadership potential. If that translates to game days, South Carolina will be part of the way to reaching the level of connectedness and communication they need to play team defense.

Again comparing Strong to Mack, Rich pointed out USC’s ability to play good team defense two seasons ago. “With BJ, there were some of those [defensive concerns]. But go back and look where we ranked that year. We were one of the best [defenses] in the SEC and among the best in the country. We have a chance to be very good defensively if we have some really good offense to complement it.”

Part of that “good offense” in Paris’ system is having pick-and-pop bigs. Strong and fellow transfer Nordin Kapic are expected to get plenty of opportunities to operate in that role, and transfer center Christ Essandoko and returning 7-footer Jordan Butler will get chances, too.

Rich shared that the pick-and-pop is essential to South Carolina’s success. “That is key to our offense,” he explained. “The defense has to make a decision on how they’re going to guard you. If they help too much, that big is going to pop back and make an open three. If they don’t help, it opens up driving lanes for our guards to get all the way into the lane.”

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Assistant coach David McKinley echoed the importance of playing to the strength of a team’s personnel. “The way Coach Paris wants to play, he wants anyone to do what they’re good at,” he explained. “We’ve got some pieces to move around and some big guys who can shoot…we’ve got a lot of guys who can shoot.”

In addition to being one of those big guys who can shoot, Strong provides something else important, according to fellow assistant coach Eddie Shannon. “If you look at all the teams who have won the past couple of years–and even look at our team from two years ago–they were older,” Shannon said. “I think that’s important for your culture.”

Shannon also cited the necessity of teams having good people and leaders on the court. Strong demonstrated some of this by spending much of his time with the media talking up his teammates.

He told GamecockCentral that the team’s guards have practiced extremely well this preseason. He also had something positive to say about each of his frontcourt teammates.

Specifically, Strong shared that he is high on Nordin Kapic’s ability to shoot the ball, he praised both Jordan Butler and Christ Essandoko as “versatile” big men, and he revealed that freshmen EJ Walker and Hayden Assemian have been hard at work, learning the system and practicing with intensity. He added a note on Assemian, saying the youngster was “working his tail off.”

Strong and his new South Carolina teammates will take the floor for an official game in less than a month. The Gamecocks open the season against North Carolina A&T on November 4th at Colonial Life Arena. USC also will play a “secret” scrimmage against Georgia Tech and an exhibition against NC State in Greensboro, North Carolina.

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