Gamecocks MBB Players Spoke About the Toughness of the SEC and More

South Carolina Men's Basketball players Meechie Johnson, Ta'Lon Cooper and BJ Mack sat down and spoke with the media Wednesday afternoon.

South Carolina Men's Basketball players Meechie Johnson, Ta'Lon Cooper and BJ Mack sat down and spoke with the media Wednesday afternoon.

With South Carolina less than 12 hours away from tip-off in the first round of the NCAA tournament, not only did Coach Lamont Paris have a chance to talk with the media, but they also made Meechie Johnson, Ta'Lon Cooper, and BJ Mack available as well. Meechie Johnson has talked about making the tournament the ultimate goal and why he came to South Carolina. He spoke on what the experience has been so far:

It's been a blessing to be here with these guys, we've been working, put a lot of work in, we believe we can be in this moment and since being here we've just been having a lot of fun, binding, watching film, going to dinner, enjoying every bit of moments we can, making memories.

Meechie Johnson and guard Myles Stute (10) enter the court during the NCAA first round practice session at PPG Paints Arena / Gregory Fisher-USA TODAY Sports

With Cooper and Johnson having made the tournament before, they were asked how they helped the guys on the team know what to expect in their first-round game against Oregon today. Ta'Lon Cooper stated:

When I came (to the NCAA tournament) it was during covid, so I didn't get the full experience but just to tell them to embrace the moment. It's going to be on a big stage, were going to play in front of a good group of crowds, so just embrace the moment and go out there and have fun and play basketball. 

BJ Mack was asked to talk about how playing in arguably one of the most challenging and most physical conferences in the country and how that's helped this team develop their games:

The SEC is probably the most physical conference so playing against guys that are seven foot, 7'5 we played against twice this year, so just having that to go against and then into a tournaments type of play, you're kind of get a little bit of an advantage, seeing how the refs are going to call the games, playing in different cities across the country it might be different, some places you might play might be more physical, others might not. So, we've kind of had a good balance of that playing out west where they play more of a finesse style and then played in the SEC where its more physical and brutal. 

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