Syracuse's Kiyan Anthony one of five ACC freshmen to achieve this early season feat

There are plenty of big name, true freshmen playing big roles in the ACC this season, including Anthony and Sadiq White Jr. of the 'Cuse.

Dec 2, 2025; Syracuse, New York, USA; Syracuse Orange guard Kiyan Anthony (7) reacts against the Tennessee Volunteers during the second half at the JMA Wireless Dome. Mandatory Credit: Rich Barnes-Imagn Images | Rich Barnes-Imagn Images

For the first time since the ACC launched a 20-game schedule back in 2019, Syracuse is off this weekend, the first Saturday of December, after its most satisfying win Tuesday against Tennessee.

The Orange do not play an early conference road game this season as the ACC cut back to 18 league games, providing a rare weekend off, and nine day break between games for the players at this point in early December.

But 16 other ACC teams do play this games this Friday-Sunday, with only Clemson joining Syracuse with no games until next week. The Orange (5-3) return to play in the Dome next Thursday night against Saint Joseph's (9:00 p.m. ET / ACC Network), a game that was moved from Las Vegas to Syracuse after the Hawks (4-3) were bounced from the Player's Era Festival.

Saint Joseph's has games against Temple (Saturday) and Coppin State (Tuesday) before meeting the 'Cuse.

ACC freshmen standouts are scoring points in bunches in the early portion of the season

The ACC has five different true freshmen leading their team in total points this season, while no other D-I conference has more than three such players.

One of those five players is Anthony, who with Donnie Freeman missing the last four games because of a foot injury, has managed to score 90 total points (11.2 ppg).

If not hurt, Freeman, based on being the team's leading scorer (17.8 ppg) before the injury against Monmouth on November 18, would likely be the SU total points leader at this stage of the season, but he has been stuck at 71 points.

After Anthony, William Kyle III has scored 79 points (9.9 ppg) so far, and Nate Kingz has 76 points (9.5 ppg) to pace the team's point production.

Duke's Cameron Boozer is the top scoring freshman nationally

Five ACC freshmen rank among the top seven freshmen nationally in scoring, led by Boozer and Stanford's Ebuka Okorie, who top all D-I freshmen at 23.6 and 21.4 ppg, respectively.

The other rookie standouts on the list are UNC's Caleb Wilson (19.3 ppg), Louisville's Mikel Brown Jr. (17.6 ppg), and Thijs De Ridder of Virginia (17.6 ppg). All five are starters on their respective teams, and only Brown does not lead his team in total points.

Anthony is the only one of the five players who lead their ACC team in points scored to not be a regular starter, although he did start the Delaware State and Drexel games replacing an injured J.J. Starling.

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