Carmelo once owned the Big 12
Carmelo Anthony thought the game was over. Thought his college career was going to end in Boston, a round before the Sweet 16.
Carmelo’s Syracuse Orangemen trailed Eddie Sutton’s Cowboys 27-10 in the NCAA Tournament’s Round of 32. Tony Allen and Melvin Sanders were playing bulldog defense on Carmelo and Sutton’s strategy had solved the Syracuse zone that for decades had and would befuddle teams in March.
You know what happened. Carmelo and Syracuse rallied past OSU, 68-56. Then after beating Auburn in the Sweet 16, Syracuse beat three other Big 12 powers:
•OU 63-47 in the East Regional final in Albany, New York;
•Texas 95-84 in the Final Four in New Orleans;
•Kansas 81-78 in the NCAA title game in New Orleans.
Big 12 basketball never had been better. Two Final Four teams in 2002. Two more in 2003. But that glorious season of 2002-03 was torpedoed by a precocious freshman.
Syracuse was not a oneman show. Hakim Warrick was a devastating shot blocker. Gerry McNamara was a superb freshman point guard. Jim Boeheim’s zone defense, then as now, troubled the best of teams.
But Carmelo was the catalyst. A ballyhooed recruit from Baltimore, he quickly lived up to the hype. Today, it’s routine for a freshman to dominate on the college hardwood. But it was hard to fathom in 2003.
Carmelo averaged 22.2 points and 10.0 rebounds a game. He did not make first-team All-American. It was a stellar first team — Kansas’ Nick Collison, Marquette’s Dwyane Wade, Wake Forest’s Josh Howard, Texas’ T.J. Ford and Xavier’s David West. More great players stuck around longer back then. But Carmelo was incredible. The same scoring machine we’ve seen now for 15 years in the NBA.
Syracuse went 24-5, won the Big East West with a 13-3 record but lost in the semifinals of the Big East Tournament and was given a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Playing in Boston, the Orangemen beat Manhattan 76-65 and then met Oklahoma State.
Those Cowboys included Allen, Sanders, Victor Williams, Ivan McFarlin and Andre Williams. They dominated early, and Carmelo wondered what he had gotten himself into.
“We was down at halftime,” 31-26, Carmelo said. “Honestly, I thought that game was over with. I thought we was losing that game. That team was very athletic. They played hard. They was a physical team. We wasn’t used to that kind of Big 12 play. We had to really adjust our game plan and figure it out.”
Syracuse figured it out. Carmelo struggled against OSU, scoring 13 points on 5-of-16 shooting. But he struggled no more.
Eighteen points on 7-of-17 shooting against Auburn, 20 points on 9-of-16 shooting against OU, 33 points on 12-of19 shooting against Texas and 20 points on 7-of-16 shooting against Kansas.
Now we know Carmelo as a Thunder sharpshooter. But for 15 years, while the world knew Carmelo as a New York Knickerbocker superstar, here in Middle America, we knew him as the guy who wrecked a golden Big 12 season.
“I remember everything about that run,” Carmelo said. “It was fun, because we played like all them, even early in the year we played Missouri. To play against OU, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Texas, I felt like I owned the Big 12 at the time.”
Roy Williams never won an NCAA title at Kansas. This was where he came the closest. Syracuse controlled much of the game, but Kansas rallied late. And with a chance to tie in the final seconds, Warrick flew in from the paint and blocked Michael Lee’s 3-point shot from the corner.
“That game stings for me more than any loss,” said Collison, now Carmelo’s OKC teammate. “But we battled. We played as hard we could. Gerry McNamara hit a ton of 3’s. It was a rough game for us. Great moment for him.”
Carmelo would have many more great moments. But none greater than in the 16-day span when he terrorized Big 12 basketball.
Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at (405) 760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM98.1. You can also view his personality page at newsok. com/berrytramel.