This Coach Stage Is Full

They call him ‘Mello. As in mellow. As in melodious.

And really, in a city known as the Big Easy and for its jazzy flair, is there any better description for a player so silky smooth?

Carmelo Anthony, Syracuse’s once-in-a-lifetime freshman, made it look downright easy Saturday night, toying with Texas before 54,432 in the Superdome and leading the Orangemen to a 95-84 victory in the Final Four, setting up an intriguing national championship game with senior-laden Kansas.

And the precocious man-child was not about to settle for a national semifinal victory.

“I’m not satisfied with my game,” said a smiling but obviously hard-to-please Anthony, who had a career-high 33 points to go with a game-high 14 rebounds. “I think I played pretty well. I took shots. My field-goal percentage wasn’t bad [12 of 19]. I got my teammates open.

“That was the most important thing of the night, getting my teammates involved.”

Benefiting most from Anthony’s passing was a fellow freshman, point guard Gerry McNamara, who contributed 19 points, four assists and four steals.

“I mean, every point they scored, you can almost attribute to Carmelo when he was in the game,” Texas Coach Rick Barnes said. “He makes you help, he makes you rotate. If you don’t get all five guys rotating the way they need to, they’re going to come up with something.

“Tonight, every time they needed to make a big play, they made it.”

It was supposed to be a battle of wills between Syracuse’s vaunted 2-3 zone defense and Texas’ ultra-quick and imaginative point guard, T.J. Ford, who needed to penetrate and kick the ball out to sharpshooters Brandon Mouton and Brian Boddicker, who needed to bust the zone with three-pointers.

But it was the Orangemen’s offensive acumen that took center stage, as well as an animated conversation between Ford, who had 12 points and 13 assists, and Anthony, Ford telling Anthony that because he was only a freshman, he shouldn’t have been receiving so many favorable calls from the officials.

After Texas (26-7) had erased a nine-point first-half deficit and took a two-point lead, 61-59, when Mouton, who led the Longhorns with 25 points, knocked down a three-pointer with 12:11 remaining in the game, Syracuse (29-5) took off on a game-turning 19-5 run.

The Longhorns crept back to within four, 85-81, on a Boddicker three-pointer with 1:07 to play, but Syracuse and Anthony, who had scored the Orangemen’s first 11 points of the second half, slammed the door, putting Syracuse in the title game for the third time in school history.

The Orangemen lost to Indiana, 74-73, in 1987 and to Kentucky, 76-67, in 1996.

“That’s what you’re in this game for,” Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim said. “You want to win it. You don’t want to just get there.”

Syracuse has already beaten four teams from the Big 12 Conference this season.

Kansas will be the fifth the Orangemen meet this year.

And according to Texas guard Royal Ivey, who drew the primary defensive assignment on Anthony, Syracuse has an advantage in the versatile freshman.

“Probably the hardest defensive job I’ve had since I’ve been in college,” said Ivey, who gave up four inches to Anthony. “He’s [6 feet 8], explosive, strong. He’ll shoot over you, drive you, spin move, everything. It’s pretty tough.”