South Carolina had to do it the hard way. To get to the level of success it had last year, it had to go through the gauntlet that was an 18-game SEC slate.<\/p>\n
There was no alternate route or shortcut. The Gamecocks had to face it head on. And they did \u2014 for the most part.<\/p>\n
The feel-good story could\u2019ve fizzled out after a 40-point loss to Auburn followed by a last-second loss to a mediocre LSU team. But South Carolina responded well and weathered the storm, finishing tied for the second-best record in the SEC. <\/p>\n
[See what other fans are saying on The Insiders Forum!]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Now as the Gamecocks enter a new season, it\u2019s going to be the same challenge as last year, only a bit tougher in head coach Lamont Paris\u2019 opinion. <\/p>\n \u201cThis league continues to get better every year. I think back to (Tennessee head coach) Rick Barnes made a statement that last year\u2019s season was the best he had ever seen in the SEC, and he can\u2019t imagine it being any better,\u201d Paris said Tuesday at SEC Media Days. <\/p>\n \u201cFast-forward a year later, it might be better. It\u2019s full of tough-minded and tough \u2014 physically tough teams but tough-minded teams, which I think is just as important or more important. That\u2019s kind of who we\u2019ve been. That\u2019s who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n [Join GamecockCentral for great coverage, great community]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Even after winning 26 games, there\u2019s still those who still don\u2019t believe South Carolina is on the same level as other teams in the conference. The Gamecocks were picked to finish 11th out of 16 teams in this year\u2019s SEC preseason media poll, released on Monday. <\/p>\n It\u2019s going to be used as bulletin board material for Paris\u2019 team to feed off from, just like they did last year when they were picked to finish dead-last in the preseason. At the same time, the conference only gets tougher, which will make it even more difficult to repeat what they did a season ago. <\/p>\n \u201cThere are challenges. We want to be in front of challenges and then overcome obstacles and hurdles and make achievements in the face of challenges,\u201d Paris said. \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s near the gratification of making achievements without adversity, without challenge. That\u2019s what we want. I think everybody wants that.\u201d<\/p>\n [Win two tickets to the South Carolina-Texas A&M football game]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n This season, South Carolina will play 16 games against teams ranked inside KenPom\u2019s top 50<\/a>. 13 of those matchups will come in SEC play. KenPom projects the Gamecocks will finish 16-14 overall and 7-11 in the conference. <\/p>\n All of this are just numbers and predictions, though. It doesn\u2019t mean anything unless South Carolina makes it that way. What worked so well for Paris\u2019 group last year was their toughness and their ability to face adversity. That\u2019s what he expects to see from his new team in 2024-25. <\/p>\n \u201cWe had a high level of toughness last year,\u201d Paris said. \u201cAgain, it\u2019s a process to try to get to that, but we have the makings of what could be another good, tough team. If you\u2019re not tough in this conference, it\u2019s going to be hard to win any games, to be honest with you.\u201d<\/p>\n The post \u2018Everybody wants that\u2019: Paris wants South Carolina to face adversity, be challenged<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" South Carolina had to do it the hard way. To get to the level of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72805\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Discuss South Carolina basketball on The Insiders Forum!<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n