The days of Carmelo Anthony leading Syracuse to the national championship are long gone. The Orange haven’t made the NCAA Tournament since 2021 and aren’t on track to get back to March Madness in Adrian Autry’s third season.
It’s gotten so bad that Melo himself appears fed up with the program his son now plays for. Kiyan Anthony is in his first season with the Orange, and played 16 minutes on Monday night in Chapel Hill as No. 14 North Carolina built a huge lead on Syracuse before holding on for an 87-77 win.
Despite Syracuse’s valiant comeback bid, cutting what was a 32-point Tar Heels’ lead with just over 10 minutes left to seven points at the 1:22 mark of the second half, Melo has seemingly had enough. He responded to a video of the game on social media with SMFH, and Syracuse fans have taken it as a sign that the program needs to hit the reset button immediately.
Carmelo Anthony voicing his concerns on Syracuse basketball👀
— Cardiac Cuse (@cardiac_cuse) February 3, 2026
Can we just fire Red now? pic.twitter.com/nyTHVWsrbF
UNC are helping bring the Adrian Autry era to its end at Syracuse
Autry was the obvious heir-apparent to Jim Boeheim at Syracuse. It was never going to be an open coaching search to replace a legend like Boeheim, but now the Orange have a chance to wipe the slate clean, three years removed from Boeheim’s final season, and save their floundering program.
In a way, by blowing out Syracuse so handily, before things got tight late, UNC is helping bring some finality to Autry’s tenure and clarify the steps the Orange need to take to get back to ACC contention. The program has never been the same since leaving the Big East, though Boeheim did lead them to a Final Four in 2016.
While that’s not good for the strength of the league, it does help to cement UNC’s place alongside Duke as the top dogs in the ACC. Not that Syracuse was ever going to threaten that UNC’s status as an anointed blue blood, but it hasn’t been smooth sailing through the Hubert Davis era. At times, UNC fans shared Melo’s sentiment about their own team.
Still, no matter how you judge Davis’s tenure so far, it’s obvious that UNC’s transition from a legend in Roy Williams has gone much better than Syracuse’s, though unfortunately, not quite as well as Duke’s.