COLUMBIA -- Add it to the pile of clippings. The only way to make it reality is to get to work.
And South Carolina has been working since last season ended.
Dawn Staley's powerhouse women's basketball team, last seen completing a 38-0 season with its third national championship, began a week of staying on top on Monday when the SEC announced its preseason order of finish. To the surprise of precisely no one, the Gamecocks were picked first.
USC is also expected to be the No. 1 team in the country when the first Associated Press Top 25 of the season is released on Tuesday.
The Gamecocks were picked second in the SEC last year to LSU after losing five starters off a squad that only lost one game, but raced past the Tigers and the rest of the league to claim their third straight regular-season title and their eighth in 11 years, all under Staley. By returning every player but one from that team, USC was an easy pick for first place this year.
USC has won its last 47 SEC regular-season games, posting a 47-1 league record over the past three seasons. The Gamecocks haven't dropped an SEC regular-season game since Dec. 30, 2021, when Missouri topped them by a point at Mizzou Arena.
The Gamecocks' first SEC regular-season game this year? At Missouri on Jan. 2.
Te-Hina Paopao made the preseason All-SEC first team. Raven Johnson and MiLaysia Fulwiley were on the second team.
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The Tigers were picked to finish 15th this year.
Madison Booker of league newcomer Texas and a pair of LSU players, Flau'jae Johnson and Aneesah Morrow, were each named preseason SEC Player of the Year.
USC men picked 11th
Lamont Paris seethed at the media's predicted last-place finish for his team during last year's SEC Tipoff.
The gas can he poured on the bonfire that became a tied-for-second finish still has some fuel in it.
The Gamecocks were picked 11th this year, still out of the top half of the new 16-team league but not at the bottom. USC lost a chunk of the talent that led last season's team to 26 wins, 13 in the league and the first NCAA Tournament appearance in seven years, but Paris reloaded through the transfer portal and added homegrown top prospect Cam Scott to his roster.
Alabama, anointed No. 2 in the first AP Top 25 of the season, was picked as preseason league champion. Crimson Tide guard Mark Sears was voted preseason SEC Player of the Year.
Gamecock sophomore forward Collin Murray-Boyles, a potential NBA Draft lottery pick, represented USC on the preseason All-SEC squad.