College hoops season is still a few weeks from ramping up, but in terms of college hoops storylines, we got a spicy meatball in terms of intrigue.
That's because on Wednesday, Carmelo Anthony dropped a wild nugget, during an appearance on Barstool Sports' "Pardon My Take" on Wednesday: After leading the Orange to a national title in 2003, he actually wanted to return for another season.
It was only when Jim Boeheim basically said that he was forcing him to go pro, that Anthony ultimately left.
"Boeheim told me to get my ass off the campus, he don't want to see me no more, I better not be back on campus," Anthony said in the clip below. "But I was explaining this to somebody on the way here, I wanted to go back because at the time we started to win, that March, April, you know, we won a championship, to go back on campus, I was just starting to get my feet wet on campus.
You know, the weather was changing. First of all, it's 20 inches of snow every day in Syracuse. So, the weather started to change. That's when the school started to blossom. You're seeing people, the bars are open, you know, the quad is popping, the student center is popping. So, I started to be a student again."
He continued.
"So, I started to experience it from the regular student's perspective. So, I started going to frat parties and shit. I started hanging with regular students, I was just enjoying myself."
Couple thoughts here.
One, in reality this news isn't really all that surprising. The list of guys who have publicly said they wanted to come back to campus for a second year and their coach wouldn't let them is long and extensive. Anthony Davis said it. John Calipari famously ripped up Derrick Rose's scholarship after one year at Memphis.
Now add Jim Boeheim, who knew there was simply too much money on the table for Melo not to come back to college for one season.
At the same time, the way Melo lays it out kind of makes sense. Anyone who has been to Syracuse knows he's right - the entire campus is pretty much under snow from November 1st on, so I can imagine him spending most of April and May hanging out, enjoying the hell out of being the guy at Syracuse.
By the way, this also confirms a small, random rumor that popped up for like one day back in the spring of April 2003: For legit like half a second, there was a report out that LeBron James was seriously considering going to UConn. The argument was that he heard Carmelo was coming back for his sophomore year, and wanted to go somewhere that he could be his rival.
Admittedly I only know this because I'm a UConn nut, but that was legit a storyline for like one day. I even remember "PTI" talking about it one day.
Anyway it was never to be, but man would it have been cool to see Melo back for another year at Syracuse, even if it didn't happen.