Syracuse Basketball: 4-star Kiyan Anthony vaults into top 30, plans for top 5 soon

Four-star Kiyan Anthony, the Syracuse basketball priority recruiting target from New York City, continues to make moves up the national rankings for his class.

When the Orange coaching staff offered a scholarship to the 6-foot-5 shooting guard in November of 2022, several recruiting services had him in the top 75 around the country in the 2025 cycle.

Now Anthony, the son of Orange legend Carmelo Anthony, is perhaps heading toward five-star status in the junior class. When On3 updated its 2025 national rankings not too long ago, Kiyan Anthony cracked the top 30 overall.

On3 has him at No. 30 nationwide, No. 8 at shooting guard and No. 1 in New York within his class. The Circuit places Anthony at No. 25 overall, while all of the other primary recruiting services have him inside the top 50.

Anthony earned high praise from high school hoops experts for his play during the most recent AAU season for the Baltimore-based Team Melo in Nike’s EYBL league. That helped fuel a surge in his 2025 national ratings as well as an expansion of his offer sheet.

Syracuse basketball target Kiyan Anthony eyes a list cut soon.

If Anthony continues to shine in grassroots basketball and for Long Island Lutheran High School in Brookville, N.Y., I believe he can make a run at five-star status in the 2025 cycle.

The Orange coaching staff has prioritized Anthony for a while now. He took an official visit to the Hill in late October of last year. Per an article from Connor Pignatello on masslive.com, Anthony plans to make a trip to Central New York to watch Syracuse basketball host Miami at the JMA Wireless Dome this Saturday, Jan. 20.

Anthony told Pignatello that he plans to cut down his list of contenders still in the running to five schools on March 7, which is his birthday. Anthony looks to make a college decision this October or November, just before his senior season begins.

Besides the Orange, Anthony has officially visited fellow Atlantic Coast Conference squad Florida State. He has said on numerous occasions that he’s likely to also take official visits to Big Ten Conference schools Indiana and Michigan.

If I were a betting man, I’d say that Anthony’s top five is likely to consist of Syracuse basketball, Florida State, Indiana and Michigan. The fifth school isn’t as clear, at least to me.

His full offer sheet, to date, includes 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.

Kentucky has also shown an interest in Anthony. He certainly could land more big offers in the coming weeks or months, as his high school junior season wraps up and the next AAU circuit kicks off in the spring.

Rob Cassidy, a national analyst with Rivals.com, recently said that it’s far from a sure thing that Anthony will ultimately choose the ‘Cuse.

That being said, I’d be shocked if Syracuse basketball isn’t in his top five when he discloses that list cut in early March. It should prove an interesting next couple of months following Anthony’s recruiting process.