As the dust settles on what has been a fairly successful 2024 recruiting cycle, it’s time for Syracuse to start laying the groundwork for the class of 2025. Because Jim Boeheim had a piece in bringing Elijah Moore to Central New York (and to a lesser extent Donnie Freeman), this will be Adrian Autry’s first true recruiting class. You’d be hard pressed to find a better starting the point than the son of SU Basketball royalty. The Orange get their shot at just that with Kiyan Anthony in town for his official visit this weekend.
The timing of Kiyan’s visit is certainly interesting seeing as though there isn’t a football game this weekend let alone one at home. Syracuse is headed out to Rochester for Monroe Madness on Saturday, a fan event similar to the Orange Tipoff held at the Dome last weekend. That market is a good one for SU Athletics to target fans from outside the Syracuse metropolitan area. You certainly can’t market Anthony since he is not on the team yet nor has he even committed, but will he make an appearance this weekend?
That being said, when you’re the son of one of the best players to ever call the Dome home, chances are you’ve seen plenty of what the Central New York area has to offer. In fact, Kiyan watched the Florida State football game from a box with several members of the coaching staff (Carmelo was there too). Frankly, this weekend is much less about showing him the area like you might see with some recruits. The big thing for Autry and co. to hone in on is making your pitch. Build on your father’s legacy, be an integral part of the rise back to the top, headline the first full-post Boeheim recruiting class. Three very important things to hammer home this weekend.
But if you think this is a one horse race, you’d be mistaken.
For the most part, Florida State has been a very solid ACC program over the past few years (and those baby blue jerseys are SICK). But let’s be honest, neither Carmelo nor his son belong in that uniform. The same can be said for Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Providence, and Maryland. There’s been a lot of talk about resetting the Orange standard over the past few offseasons. Failing to beat out these schools for Anthony would do just that. In a very poor way.
Recruiting in both the transfer portal and among high school athletes has gone well ever since Autry took over. You do not want to throw away all that momentum by losing out on Kiyan Anthony. That would be an awful look for Autry, his coaching staff, and the entire SU Athletics brass.
