Donte Greene Is Going To Make People Forget About Syracuse Basketball's NCAA Snub, As Well As Basketball As You Knew It

At 6'11"-ish, depending on who you ask, and featuring one of the sweetest outside strokes in D1 hoops, finding a way to slow down 'Cuse's Donte Greene is going to be a problem.
'Melo just plain knew how to score when he came to 'Cuse. He was 6'8" and 220 when he entered school. Thick as hell with a pull-up jumper and a touch around the rim that was pretty much unstoppable. He was too big and strong for D1 small forwards and WAAAAY too quick for college power forwards. His college career was a one year mismatch. Kevin Durant was a freak in college. Taller, leaner and with better range than 'Melo, Durant dominated the more finesse oriented Big 12 (if I receive a single email regarding the relative toughness in terms of physical play of the Big East compared to the Big 12, I will come down to where you live and punch you right in your ten gallon hat). Durant was the better scorer with a more dangerous game becuase of his length and better shooting touch but 'Melo was probably a little more of a complete player because of his strength (while Durant had more upside considering he had to fill out). Well imagine if a guy showed up who had the outside touch and length of Kevin Durant but the thickness and inside touch of Carmelo Anthony. That's be pretty sweet, right? Donte Greene has that, and possibly more.

In the first half of the first exhibition game that Donte Greene ever played in Division 1 basketball, Donte Greene did this: He scored 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting. He made three of the four 3-pointers he attempted and collected four rebounds.
In the following exhibition game, Donte Greene did this: He scored 26 points and was pulled with 12 minutes left in the game. 42 points in about 40 minutes (give or take because he didn't play every minute of the first half of either game). He's shooting well over 50% from 3 point range and he's 6'11", 235lbs. The kid is an absolute freak.

Now, granted, these are exhibition games against DII opponents, but if the exhibition losses of top 25 teams Ohio St. and Michigan St along with the regular season loss of Kentucky to Gardner-Webb are any indication of the competitiveness of these early season matches, the fact that a young 'Cuse team is scoring in bunches and is being led by a guy scoring more points than minutes played, it may turn out that this preseason was a sign of things to come.