We can sit here and complain all day long about what’s going on with Syracuse men’s basketball and who’s not a part of the program anymore. Transfer portal this, NIL that, we’ve got all summer to do that. Or, we can give our flowers to what IS coming to town this fall, in this case, one of SU’s prized recruits Kiyan Anthony.
Over the weekend, Anthony and his high school, Long Island Lutheran, competed in The Throne National Championship, one of the biggest high school basketball competitions in North America. LuHi ended up winning the whole thing behind a 25-point, 5-rebound, 9-for-15 shooting performance from the Syracuse commit, who was crowned tournament MVP.
A very impressive performance for the senior, who continues to tear through competition at all levels of the game. A common criticism of Anthony’s game has been that it’s similar to that of his father, in which there’s a lot of shooting and not great efficiency. But as Anthony’s game has matured over the past few months, we’ve seen that when Kiyan is on, he’s one of the most dangerous scorers in the game, which hopefully translates to the collegiate level for SU fans’ sake.
The bigger news to possibly come from this is that despite being the #1 ranked player in the state of New York, Kiyan Anthony was not selected as a McDonald’s All-American (unlike his future teammate Donnie Freeman last year.) This is speculation, but maybe Anthony used this slight as motivation to dominate at the Throne. If that was the case, Kiyan did that, and then some.
Now where Anthony’s game fits with the current makeup of Syracuse’s roster is yet to be seen. It wouldn’t be crazy to see Anthony come off the bench if SU is able to land a top-tier point guard in the portal (someone a little bigger of a name than William Kyle III,) but right now it appears that a high-scoring backcourt of Kiyan Anthony and J.J. Starling might have to lead the way if SU wants to see success in 2025-26.
