After a good long while with no recruiting news for Syracuse basketball, visits are starting to pick up again, as Donnie Freeman and a couple of 2025 prospects were on campus for the Clemson game, where Freeman among other things said that he would be signing in the early period (November), good news for SU fans.
But, potentially even more of note for the future is that Kiyan Anthony, son of Carmelo, has officially scheduled a visit to Central New York after he received an offer from the Orange last year.
“When the coaches came up to me and finally offered me a scholarship, I was really in a star-struck moment because he went there, he won a national championship there,’’ Anthony said to syracuse.com. “So me having an opportunity to think that I could go there and follow in his footsteps, it’s a great feeling.’’
Anthony is ranked as the number 36 overall player in the class of 2025 by the 247 Sports Composite rankings and is listed at 6’4 and 186 lbs. So, he’s got good size at the guard position and still has plenty of time to work on his body before getting to college in 18 months.
The Orange have only two recruits in place for the future, Freeman and Elijah Moore in the class of 2024, but have been working hard on Anthony and a number of other 2025 prospects such as Derek Dixon (another DC area prospect), who visited with Freeman this past weekend. For Anthony though, while there may be skeptics of his because of the stature of his father, he said a while back that Carmelo always has guidance for him to silence those critics.
“He just tells me to stay humble,’’ Anthony said to syracuse.com. “Don’t let all the voices and the college coaches get to you. Stay humble and stick to yourself … and just keep working because once you work and once you show on the court, it’s automatically and naturally going to come. Don’t get caught up in all the rankings and stuff like that.”
It’s not like SU is the only school Anthony is considering, as he is visiting Leonard Hamilton and Florida State before coming to Syracuse. But, the New York-based guard would be a huge start and base for the Orange class of 2025 recruiting if he were to pledge to Adrian Autry and his staff. That would be a huge validation for the new head coach, after securing Freeman and reaffirming Moore’s commitment after Jim Boeheim’s retirement.
“I’m in contact with basically all the coaching staff at Syracuse,’’ Anthony said to syracuse.com. “They always reach out to me. They were just at the game. They always show love, so it’s a great feeling.’’
