Who could become the Deion Sanders of college basketball? Carmelo Anthony to Syracuse and two other hires that’d reach ‘Prime Time’ levels

Deion Sanders took over college football during the 2023 season, despite his collegiate experience to that point coming from his time with the Jackson State Tigers. Coach Prime took over a Colorado Buffaloes program that started 3-0 and quickly faded, finishing 4-8. But the true story wasn’t CU’s progression as a program. It was Sanders’ bringing record viewing audiences to the University of Colorado Boulder. It was about the overnight turnaround from Pac-12 afterthought to all ESPN could talk about.

The first thought when “Prime Time” became sports’ biggest story at a non-football school was, “Who is next?” We’ve seen Michael Vick and DeSean Jackson take over the Norfolk State Spartans and the Delaware State Hornets, but those stories haven’t captivated like Coach Prime’s.

Perhaps it can’t happen again in college football. Lightning rarely strikes twice in the same area.

Maybe it can happen in college basketball. There’s a void for headline names, and the sport has rapidly lost them over the last few years. Among them are the Auburn Tigers’ Bruce Pearl, the Virginia Cavaliers’ Tony Bennett, the Syracuse Orange’s Jim Boheim, the Duke Blue Devils’ Mike Krzyzewski, the Villanova Wildcats’ Jay Wright, and the North Carolina Tar Heels’ Roy Williams.

Could these former NBA stars become the new faces of the sport, like NFL (and MLB) legend Deion Sanders did?

Syracuse legend Carmelo Anthony takes over in Central N.Y.

Carmelo Anthony is the singular most impactful athlete Syracuse has ever seen. His one year in Central New York resulted in a run to the 2003 national championship. Boeheim’s legacy as a coach peaked with Melo leading the charge.

Melo’s legend is secured as a player, but could he expand it by leading the Orange in the post-Boeheim era?

Anthony has said before that he’d be interested in coaching high school if given full autonomy, though never been willing to consider the NBA because great players are rarely successful coaches. He revealed his likeliest landing spot would be the Oak Hill Warriors, his alma mater, which, truthfully, is running just fine without him.

“I think I would coach high school. I gotta have my own situation, like a ‘Oak Hill’ type of situation, you know, like a situation where I can control everything. […] It ain’t ever work for nobody like myself. Magic [Johnson], it ain’t (expletive) work. No player has, you know, like no big-time player has gotten back on the sideline and was successful as a coach we operating at a different level,” Anthony said.

Syracuse may need Melo more than Oak Hill ever could. The Adrian Autry era has not resulted in a March Madness appearance. Autry has only so many non-NCAA Tournament seasons before the plug is pulled.

If it is, why not Melo? Who could sell the SU-to-the-NBA pipeline better than a ten-time NBA All-Star and six-time All-NBA Team member who made over $400 million playing professional basketball?

Many coaches come straight from being a television analyst. Coach Prime worked for the NFL Network before becoming a coach. Anthony is currently part of NBC's broadcasts. Just saying.

Kevin Durant continues hooping with the Texas Longhorns

Kevin Durant was a good friend of and had great reverence for Steve Nash, whose career is exactly the kind of example Anthony was referring to about when it comes to star players who didn’t translate to coaching. KD doesn’t seem like the kind of person who’d be scared off by someone else’s failures, though.

A coaching career at his alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin, would be a logical first step for Durant. KD loves the Longhorns and donated $3 million to Texas in 2018, as he was en route to winning his second consecutive Finals MVP for the Golden State Warriors.

Durant doesn’t seem like someone who can ever be away from hooping. Certainly, he has complicated relationships across the NBA, though.

In Austin, it’s all love. Durant to the Longhorns would likely raise NIL funding from the rich donor base like no other alum ever could.

JJ Redick would be the prodigal son at Duke if he ever left Lakers

JJ Redick has a sweet gig with the Los Angeles Lakers right now. They’ve been winning without LeBron James all season and have recently been winning without Luka Doncic or Austin Reaves in the lineup.

With that said, the Lakers’ head coaching job has broken even the NBA’s all-time coaching legend, Phil Jackson. There’s no guarantee it’ll be smiles and sunshine forever in the city of Angels.

It would be bliss 24/7 if Duke’s all-time leading scorer returned to Durham to take over the Blue Devils, though. And it's probably his dream job.

Of course, Jon Scheyer probably isn’t going anywhere, advancing further and further each year, having recently reached his first Final Four with Duke.

The nostalgia of seeing Redick on the sidelines at Cameron Indoor would be unmatched. It’s unlikely, but it’d bring the national spotlight back to Tobacco Road.