Legendary Steve Smith talks Carmelo and Kiyan Anthony, Syracuse, EYBL Scholastic, Oak Hill and more

When I was fortunate enough to get the legendary Steve Smith on the phone in recent days, I was hoping for perhaps a 10-minute conversation with one of the country's best head coaches ever in high school hoops.

We ended up speaking for nearly an hour, and what a treat it was. Smith, the iconic former head coach of the powerhouse Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Va., hung up his whistle in 2022 after winning more than 1,200 games with the Warriors, capturing nine national championships, guiding dozens of high school All-Americans, and claiming too many awards and honors to fully list here.

In a telephone interview with Inside the Loud House, Smith touched on a variety of topics, including his latest gig, his time at Oak Hill, the current landscape in high school and college basketball and, of course, Syracuse legend Carmelo Anthony, who spent his senior year with Smith and the Warriors, earning first-team All-American honors before heading to the Hill and leading the Orange to a national title as a freshman phenom.

Steve Smith is glad that his former player Carmelo Anthony's son, Kiyan, is competing for Syracuse basketball.

Smith is entering his second season as the commissioner of arguably the nation's premier high school hoops conference, the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League Scholastic ("EYBL Scholastic"). For the 2026-27 campaign, the EYBL Scholastic will have 15 members, after it had 20 last season.

The super league was originally known as the National Interscholastic Basketball Conference ("NIBC") when it commenced operations in 2021-22 with members such as Oak Hill, the Montverde Academy in Montverde, Fla., the La Lumiere School in La Porte, Ind., and the Wasatch Academy in Mount Pleasant, Utah, among others. Nike's involvement started in 2023-24.

Sources have told Inside the Loud House that the EYBL Scholastic's 15 schools for 2026-27 are Nike-affiliated programs. The IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., an original member of the NIBC, wasn't in the EYBL Scholastic during the 2025-26 season. The Ascenders are an Under Armour-affiliated team.

Other juggernaut programs that aren't in the EYBL Scholastic for 2026-27, including the Spire Academy in Geneva, Ohio, and the Sunrise Christian Academy in Bel Aire, Kan., partner with Adidas. There is chatter out there that perhaps Adidas may look to form its own league to potentially compete with the EYBL Scholastic, but I haven't been able to confirm anything concrete there.

In recent years, several Syracuse basketball players, such as sophomore guard/wing Kiyan Anthony and sophomore forward Sadiq White Jr., have competed in the EYBL Scholastic; former SU guards Judah Mintz and J.J. Starling both played in the league when it was still known as the NIBC (Mintz suited up for Smith at Oak Hill).

In 2026-27, the new 'Cuse staff under first-year head coach Gerry McNamara is recruiting a couple of EYBL Scholastic members hard, including CIA Bella Vista in Phoenix, which was the country's top team last season.

As the commissioner, Smith says the role keeps him involved in high school basketball. He goes to games. "I like the makeup now" with 15 members, all in one division and with each team facing every other squad once, he says. "We will have a lot of top 10 and top 20 matchups throughout the season."

The season-ending Chipotle Nationals, held every April in Fishers, Ind., crowns a high school national champion. In 2026, three of the four teams in the Final Four of the Chipotle Nationals were from the EYBL Scholastic.

"Most of our teams have really good players and established coaches," said Smith, who became Oak Hill's head coach in 1985 and retired about four years ago at the age of 66. "Someone coming out of our league will play in the final game of the Chipotle Nationals pretty much every year. ... Nike is committed, so our league will always be strong."

He says that all the changes in high school and college hoops "helped me retire." Those changes include financial considerations for players - yes, in high school - in the form of name, image and likeness ("NIL") deals, and the transfer portal's explosion at the collegiate level and also at the prep level.

"In-home visits are much shorter now," as prospects want to know two things: How much playing time they will get, and what their NIL will be, Smith says. "It's totally changed things. Kids are jumping ship for any reason. It's just routine now."

He mentioned another legend in high school hoops, the late Morgan Wootten, who led DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Md., a part of the talent-rich DMV. Wootten and DeMatha were the first to play a national schedule outside of their league, Smith said, adding that Oak Hill was next.

"I had to turn down players. ... But, it's different now," Smith says. "There are so many options out there for kids."

Two of his Oak Hill players, forward Carmelo Anthony and guard Billy Edelin, helped lead the Orange and Hall of Fame head coach Jim Boeheim to the program's only national title in 2003. Prior to joining the 'Cuse, Anthony spent his senior year at Oak Hill in the 2001-02 season. He was a first-team All-American, with the Warriors going 32-1 overall and finishing as the nation's No. 2 squad.

Anthony had been a standout at Towson Catholic High School in the Baltimore area and committed to Syracuse early. However, there were concerns about his academic eligibility for college, so he ended up transferring to Oak Hill.

The summer before his senior season with the Warriors, Anthony didn't play the full AAU circuit as most prospects do. Rather, he went to summer school at Oak Hill and trained individually with Smith. "He could have gone straight to the pros, but he told me that he came to Oak Hill to get to Syracuse. He wanted to go to Syracuse," Smith says.

In the 2002-03 campaign, the Orange, led by Anthony, the national freshman of the year and a second-team All-American, went 30-5 overall and cut down the nets. Anthony was the 2003 Final Four's most outstanding player, and Smith was in attendance in New Orleans.

"I knew he was talented, but did I think that he would win the title and be the MVP of the Final Four?" Smith said, acknowledging that he didn't necessarily think Melo would do everything that he did as a freshman at SU.

Did two of his players, Anthony and Edelin, winning a national championship at the 'Cuse help Oak Hill with its recruiting efforts? "I'm sure I used that to my advantage," Smith says, noting that the Warriors went on to claim national titles in 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2006-07, among the nine in total. Oak Hill also went 40-1 overall in 2005-06, finishing at No. 2 in the country and just missing out on four championships in a row.

Melo's son, Kiyan, competed for Long Island Lutheran High School in Brookville, N.Y., an EYBL Scholastic member, before joining the Orange. So Smith would see Carmelo Anthony when he was watching Kiyan at league games.

"He always has a big smile," Smith said of Melo. "I get a big hug every time I see him. He's always upbeat, never down."

Smith says that when the 'Cuse coaching staff was recruiting Kiyan Anthony, he always thought it would be a "great situation" for him to play at SU, where his dad is a legend. "It's tough, though," Smith said. "Carmelo's name is so big at Syracuse. It's a lot of pressure."

Kiyan Anthony had some freshman struggles on the Hill and has needed to add strength, "but he's a good player," Smith believes. Melo's teammate with the Orange's 2003 title squad, Gerry McNamara, is now SU's head coach, replacing another alum, Adrian Autry, after the 2025-26 season concluded.

While Smith says that he doesn't know McNamara too well, he knows what GMac did at Siena over the past two seasons and thinks he will be a great fit for Kiyan Anthony. Toward the end of our 55-minute conversation, Smith reflected a bit and noted that it's kind of a full-circle moment for McNamara to be coaching Kiyan, more than two decades after he won a national title with his dad, Melo.

The Orange has been through a "little drought" in recent years, and McNamara leading the 'Cuse program and coaching Melo's son "feels like the way it should be," Smith said. "Hopefully, this is a step in the right direction for Syracuse."

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