South Carolina men's basketball working with rejuvenated intensity ahead of 2025-26 season

As the 2025-26 season approaches in less than a month, looming exhibition games mean intensity is ramping up in practices across the nation.

Inside Carolina Coliseum, Lamont Paris’s South Carolina Gamecocks have been working with high-level intensity since June. For some players, it’s at the highest level it’s been in their careers.

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Redshirt senior guard Myles Stute sees it every day. Entering his sixth season at the collegiate level, this year’s group is the best he’s seen in that regard.

“In terms of that, this is the best group I’ve been a part of,” Stute told GamecockCentral. “Just really in college in general. Every single practice we’re battling, we’re fighting against each other, we’re diving on the floor for loose balls. … Doing the dirty things that make winning teams win, so I’m excited to see how it translates come game time.”

Stute joined Paris’s Gamecocks in 2023 and missed most of the 2024-25 season with a blood clot in his lower left leg.

Fellow captain and former All-SEC guard Meechie Johnson notices it too. It’s the main thing he likes about the group in his return to South Carolina.

“Man, this team competes every day in practice with a high level (of) intensity,” Johnson said during local media day. “Everybody really wants to win. Everybody accepted their roles and usually like to play with each other.”

Johnson said the biggest thing is that everyone understands each other’s game and uses that to push each other to their limits.

Freshman guard Eli Ellis said after the intense practices, he still sees seven or eight guys getting extra reps in.

“You always see guys in the gym, no matter what,” Ellis told GamecockCentral. “I mean, any time of day, you walk into this practice facility, you go and see somebody getting in work. And then in practice, everybody’s locked in, everybody’s competing, everybody’s playing hard. There’s no days off.”

That level of effort creates accountability among the group, Ellis said. When one guy is having an off day, you have four ready to make sure they’re still ready to step up.

“And so you have those expectations and that culture, and it goes a long way, especially through the summer and all season,” Ellis said.

After months of high-level practices, the Gamecocks are ready to get things rolling in the 2025-26 season.

“They’re ready to play somebody else. They’re tired of hearing my voice without playing someone else,” Paris said during SEC Media Days. “The games can’t get here quick enough. Really excited.”

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