Syracuse basketball coaches put in the work for 4-star Kiyan Anthony. It paid off.

The son of Syracuse basketball legend Carmelo Anthony will also suit up for the Orange in the future.

After a long courtship that lasted around two years, the 'Cuse coaching staff prevailed for 2025 four-star shooting guard Kiyan Anthony from New York City on Friday, as the 6-foot-5 prospect announced his commitment to Syracuse basketball via his dad's show, 7PM in Brooklyn.

First and foremost, a huge congrats and welcome from Orange Nation to Kiyan. Additionally, let's give a shout-out to Syracuse basketball coaches, who prioritized Anthony for a while, with those efforts paying off in the end.

Anthony, who is a top-30 national prospect, a top-10 shooting guard and the No. 1 player from New York state in the 2025 cycle, had a final three of the 'Cuse, Big Ten Conference member Southern California and Auburn out of the Southeastern Conference. However, media reports indicated he ultimately decided between the Orange and the Trojans.

Leading up to his college decision, Syracuse basketball had a decent amount of analyst buzz in Anthony's recruiting process on Rivals.com and the On3 Web site, so when he picked the 'Cuse, it wasn't much of a surprise.

Syracuse basketball has won the recruiting sweepstakes for 2025 four-star Kiyan Anthony.

Anthony is a senior and key contributor in the 2024-25 campaign for the powerhouse Long Island Lutheran High School in Brookville, N.Y., which is a member of the loaded 14-member Nike Elite Youth Basketball League Scholastic ("EYBL Scholastic").

In recent weeks, multiple analysts and scouts have told me that they expect Long Island Lutheran, a preseason top-10 national squad, to significantly contend for an EYBL Scholastic title as well as a return trip to the season-ending, eight-team Chipotle Nationals that will transpire in the spring of 2025 and crown a high school national champion.

The Syracuse basketball coaching staff offered a scholarship to Anthony in November of 2022. In late October of last year, he went on an official visit to the Hill. At the start of the fall recruiting period, in early September of 2024, Anthony conducted an in-home visit with 'Cuse coaches.

Additionally, over the last two years, if not longer than that, the Orange staff was in attendance for Anthony on many occasions amid NCAA live periods on the AAU circuit as he shined for the Baltimore-based Team Melo in Nike's EYBL league.

Understandably, the 'Cuse fan base is ecstatic about Anthony choosing Syracuse basketball as his future collegiate destination, given that his dad helped lead the program to its first and only national championship in 2003.

While some SU fans always felt that Anthony was a lock to commit to the Orange, I was never in that camp. His dad always maintained that his son's college decision was Kiyan's decision alone, and the younger Anthony, throughout his recruitment, often said that while he was heavily considering Syracuse basketball, he was also keeping his options open.

In the end, though, the Orange coaching staff put in a tremendous amount of work pursuing Anthony, and that paid dividends. While Anthony is a tremendous prospect in his own right, I sincerely hope that the Syracuse basketball fan base doesn't put unrealistic, or unfair, expectations on this young man.

Anthony's dad, during the 2002-03 term, had one of the best all-around seasons ever generated by a college freshman, and to expect Anthony to replicate such a campaign, or campaigns if he plays for the 'Cuse for more than one stanza, is a tad over the top, in my humble opinion.

However, Anthony does join a Syracuse basketball 2025 class that could contend for top-10 national status and has the makings of a special cycle for the Orange. The program now has four verbal pledges in its senior class, with the other three being five-star forward Sadiq White Jr. from Charlotte, N.C., four-star guard Luke Fennell from Melbourne, Australia, and three-star wing Aaron Womack from the Milwaukee area.

Anthony coming on board at the 'Cuse for the 2025-26 season is just a tremendously exciting development for the Orange coaching staff, the program as a whole, and the Syracuse basketball fan base.