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By choosing to play for Syracuse, Kiyan is taking the spotlight head-on, playing for the program that kick-started his father Carmelo Anthony’s Hall of Fame career. Before practicing, he sees Carmelo’s name imprinted on SU’s facility. In the JMA Wireless Dome, Carmelo’s retired No. 15 will reign down from the rafters.

Still, Kiyan says he’s not chasing Carmelo’s legacy. He’s focusing on adding to it while building his own name.

Even through the Orange’s recent “down years,” Carmelo said he and Kiyan — a shooting guard and 247Sports’ No. 32 recruit in the 2025 class — stayed locked into the program. Now, in a pivotal season for SU as it looks to snap its longest March Madness drought in over five decades, Kiyan is tasked with helping restore the “Orange Standard” — encapsulated when Carmelo led Syracuse to its lone national championship in 2003.

“You talk about legacy, and you talk about family dynamics, you talk about passing things on down to your family, to your kids. And this is something that we passing, and we passing the baton to him,” Carmelo told The Daily Orange. “And now whatever he do with it, he do with it, and that’s on him.”

Before becoming a viral sensation by sunset, Matthew Vogt sat nervously in a Denny’s in Walla Walla, Wash., at 4:45 a.m. on June 2. The 34-year-old dentist struggled to eat his big omelet before heading over to Wine Valley Golf Club for one of 10 Final Qualifiers for the 2025 U.S. Open.

Vogt was on the cusp of a potential fairy tale story, though unlikely, as just two players would advance to Oakmont Country Club, a home game for the now Indiana resident. That’s enough pressure to make any golfer nervous. But Vogt had even more of a weight on his shoulders.

He grew up 30 minutes from Oakmont, spending five seasons working there as a caddie, and where he competed in his first U.S. Amateur in 2021. If Vogt prevailed, he would compete alongside the world’s best golfers on Father’s Day weekend after losing his father to colon cancer two months prior.

As he glanced at a shirtless Carmelo Anthony, Hakim Warrick had doubts. Unlike current five-star recruits, who sometimes are bigger stars than NBA players before reaching college, Anthony’s teammates didn’t know much about him.

But based on Anthony’s status as a McDonald’s All-American and conversations with Syracuse assistant coach Troy Weaver, Warrick said he was expecting big things from his freshman teammate. That expectation briefly changed when Warrick eyed Anthony before their first practice.

“I was looking at him like, ‘Everyone’s so hype about this? This little chubby dude?’” Warrick said.

By the time the Orange finished practice that day at Archbold Gymnasium, any doubts were silenced — the 6-foot-8 forward possessed elite skill, strength and quickness. He wasn’t a normal freshman. Yet Warrick’s wildest dreams couldn’t have envisioned the transcendent campaign Anthony was about to have.

Alex Kline, 31, became a basketball wunderkind through his uncanny scouting ability, deep-rooted connections and innovative mindset. It’s led him back to Syracuse, where his newest challenge is constructing a winning roster as the program’s first GM. By embracing and helping transform college basketball’s new era, Kline is crucial in attempting to bring SU — which is on the verge of missing its fourth straight NCAA Tournament — back to the “Orange Standard.”

“The way he’s wired is to take on new challenges,” agent Daniel Poneman, who has known Kline since he was 14, said. “For him to not be able to take on new challenges, it’d be like telling LeBron James to stop taking jump shots.”

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