Back on July 10th, D.A. over at Orange Fizz (where hyperlinks are forbidden!!!) spoke with Adam Ross, high school coach of one Fabricio De Melo. Ross mentioned that Melo, one of the most highly-touted recruits in the 2010 class, has whittled his list down to four schools and Syracuse was among them (scroll down a little more than halfway to see the article):
"He's basically down to four schools now. Those being Louisville, Syracuse, UConn and Florida State. There are a bunch of other schools that he has not visited. They're not totally out of the question. But right now we're spending a lot of time focusing on those four schools that he visited."
Melo was on-hand for Syracuse's win over Stephen F. Austin the NCAA Tournament and by all accounts had a great visit to SU a couple months back.
Now comes word that a final decision is expected from Fab next week and that "the consensus among AAU coaches and recruiting analysts is that Melo is heavily leaning toward Syracuse." Giddy the f*** up.
Why should you be so concerned about this 7-foot, 267 pound Brazilian? As D.A. puts it, "What if [Hasheem] Thabeet added 25 pounds, a handful of low-post moves and a smooth 20-foot jumper?" I want to go to there.