Four-star junior Kiyan Anthony, who will take an official visit to the Hill later this month, says in an interview that Syracuse basketball first-year head coach Adrian Autry is showing him a lot of love.
The 6-foot-5 shooting guard out of New York City continues to soar up the national rankings in the 2025 class. At present, multiple recruiting services rank Kiyan Anthony as a top-40 overall player, a top-10 shooting guard and the No. 1 prospect in New York within his cycle.
I contend that if Anthony shines as a junior in the upcoming 2023-24 campaign for the powerhouse Long Island Lutheran High School in Brookville, N.Y., which is a member of the loaded 10-team National Interscholastic Basketball Conference (“NIBC”), he could end up contending for five-star status.
The son of Orange legend and long-time NBA star Carmelo Anthony, Kiyan Anthony had a breakout spring and summer on the AAU circuit while suiting up for the Baltimore-based Team Melo in Nike’s EYBL league.
More recently, Anthony was named a standout performer by numerous national analysts and scouts for his play at a USA Basketball junior national team minicamp in Colorado Springs, Colo., held earlier this month.
Syracuse basketball is recruiting 2025 four-star shooting guard Kiyan Anthony hard.
This weekend, Anthony will take an official visit to fellow Atlantic Coast Conference team Florida State. The following weekend, he will officially visit the Orange. Kiyan Anthony has said he also plans to take official visits to both Indiana and Michigan at some point.
The ‘Cuse coaching staff offered a scholarship to him last November. Anthony, along with a few other highly rated prospects, has emerged as a priority target for the Orange in the 2025 class. College coaches could begin initiating direct communication with players in the junior cycle on June 15 of this year.
"In a recent interview with 247Sports scout/national recruiting analyst Brandon Jenkins, Anthony said of Syracuse basketball, “They have been on me heavy since they were able to contact me. The whole summer I was busy with basketball so now I have one weekend where I can go up there and experience the campus. I am really excited especially to have the opportunity to follow in my dad’s footsteps. It is a blessing.”"
While Kiyan Anthony has said that he has a high interest in the Orange, he has also maintained that he’s keeping his options open, and that it’s no guarantee he will play at the ‘Cuse like his dad did two decades ago, when Carmelo Anthony led Syracuse basketball to the program’s only national championship during the 2002-03 season.
To date, Kiyan Anthony has received scholarship offers from college squads such as West Virginia, UCF, Michigan, Maryland, Dayton, Florida State, Pittsburgh, Albany, Illinois, Indiana, Tennessee, Seton Hall, UMass, Providence, Memphis, Bryant, George Mason and Manhattan.
Carmelo Anthony played for the Orange under legendary Hall of Fame head coach Jim Boeheim, who retired this past March, handing over the reins to Autry, who has some big shoes to fill but has done quite well on the recruiting trail this off-season.
Kiyan Anthony said of Autry, “Even when he was an assistant coach, he always has shown love. We have been out to dinner and now that he is the head coach, I feel he is going to step into that role with a winning mentality. I have seen how he has ran practices and they are very intense. I feel their team is going to be good.”
Jenkins wrote in his article that Anthony is likely to trim his list of contenders to five or six schools when the next EYBL season gets going in the spring of 2024. I would be surprised if Syracuse basketball didn’t make this list cut.
By extension, per Jenkins, Kiyan Anthony is eyeing a possible commitment announcement prior to the beginning of his senior year at Long Island Lutheran.