5 most amazing one-man March Madness machines

3. Carmelo Anthony – 2003 Syracuse Orange

Won National Title — 20.2 points, 9.8 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.8 steals per game (six games)

Anthony started the tournament slow with two pretty mediocre performances against Manhattan and Oklahoma State, but when Syracuse got to the big stage, he took over. The Orange’s freshman phenom took the reigns with a clutch performance against Auburn in the Sweet 16, and his 33-point, 14-rebound effort against Texas in the Final Four solidified that he was the best player in that particular NCAA Tournament.

Watching Melo through that run, it becomes clear that he was the best player on the court at all times in that tournament. Anthony is by many calculations one of the best college basketball scorers ever, and he cemented himself as such by running through a future stud NBA defender in Marquis Daniels, that year’s National Player of the Year in T.J. Ford, and a Kansas team that seemed built to stop the Orange with Kirk Hinrich, Nick Collison, and Keith Langford carrying the load.

But it didn’t end up mattering that the Orange were super young against that trio of opponents, because Anthony used the tournament to prove he was more physically mature and advanced as a scorer than anyone his opponents could throw at him. He wasn’t as statistically dominant as the other players on this list, but carrying a team with Gerry McNamara as its second-best player is definitely worth highlighting, and this tournament served as a springboard to propel Anthony into the lofty expectations he had, and mostly met, in the NBA.