Fresh-squeezed orangeman: Carmelo Anthony carries Syracuse to its first NCAA championship and proves to have the juiciest game of any college freshman--ever.

Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim already was feeling queasy when his Orangemen gathered to watch videotape in preparation for their Final Four semifinal against Texas. Soon after assistant coach Mike Hopkins arrived, he began to grow seasick, too, though the Marriott New Orleans, where the team was meeting, was very much on dry land.

Ostensibly, the problem was something the coaches ate and not the prospect of trying to contain Longhorns All-American point guard T.J. Ford. But their obvious discomfort might have transmitted an unintended message to a team with three freshmen and three sophomores among its first eight players, a team climbing toward the threshold of a ...