For 20 years, basketball analysts have been trying to identify the next Michael Jordan. Oak Hill basketball coach Steve Smith says that Syracuse freshman Carmelo Anthony has lived the Michael Jordan "story."

"He was cut from the team in the ninth grade and didn't play," Smith said. "In the 10th grade, he played JV. So, it wasn't like he was a star all the time. As a junior, he played varsity at Towson Catholic.

"I said, 'You weren't good enough to play varsity as a sophomore?' And, he said, 'I was, coach, but they didn't move me up.' His junior year, he ended up being Baltimore player of the year."

In 2001-2002, when Anthony was a senior at Oak Hill, he scored 34 points against St. Vincent-St. Mary of Akron, Ohio, whose junior sensation, Lebron James, had 36.

Now, there's talk that James and Anthony will go 1-2 in the NBA Draft.

"I read an article this week that said Lebron is very marketable," Smith said, "but they go, 'Carmelo, that's a name; 'Melo,' that's a nickname.' He could make a fortune. I said, 'Carmelo, you can sponsor Mellow Yellow [and] Caramelo candy bars.' "

Smith said it has been impression that James and his mother, who wears a jersey with her son's name on the back, are more into promotion than the Anthonys.

"Carmelo's mother was in the stands crying Monday night but, if they showed her, she'd just turn her head," Smith said. "She might clap for Carmelo, but she doesn't want to be seen. Carmelo's mom would never want to be talked to or put on TV.

"Carmelo just plays. He smiles when he scores. That's his pesonality. He's fun to be around. I went up to his room Saturday at 4 o'clock. They played at 8:30. He had a game 4 1/2 hours later and he and Billy [Edelin] were playing around the room, watching cartoons.

"I'm like, 'Y'all ready to play?' And, they're like, 'Yeah, coach, it's just another game. We played in some many games at Oak Hill. We've played so many games this year.' They weren't nervous at all."

MY SOURCES INDICATE that Virginia Tech did make an effort to gauge the interest of Dayton men's basketball coach Oliver Purnell in the Hokies' opening but was not in position to pay the kind of money that Purnell eventually received from Clemson.

Purnell will receive $700,000 per year in a six-year contract that has a deferred compensation clause, which will pay him $900,000 if he completes the original six-year term. That offsets a similar arrangement Purnell had at Dayton.

New Tech coach Seth Greenberg will make $429,000 -- a bargain on the current market, but still more than double what his predecessor, Ricky Stokes, was making. Tech has two years of payments remaining on its Big East all-sports membership fee and will be strapped for money until that obligation runs out.

Former Roanoke Times columnist Pops Bogaczyk wrote in 1999, when the Hokies were given Big East all-sports membership in 1999, that they might be assessed $1 million for five years starting in 2000-2001.

Bogaczyk, now writing columns for the Charleston (W.Va.) Daily Mail, speculated Friday that Tech still might have the lowest-paid men's basketball coach in the Big East. If it's not Greenberg, Bogaczyk said, it might be Seton Hall's Louie Orr.

ASTUTE BASKETBALL OBSERVER Joe Cantafio, a former VMI and Furman basketball coach who is the director of Virginia Commonwealth's sports center, said he thinks Tech made a good move by hiring Greenberg. "The best thing is, he gets to bring his brother," said Cantafio, referring to Greenberg's older brother, Brad, a former director of player personnel for the Philadelphia 76ers. "Those guys didn't just fall off a truck."

THE GREENBERGS WERE in Hampton on Thursday, where they met with AAU honcho Boo Williams, recruited for and coached by Brad Greenberg at LaSalle, and spoke with the state's top-rated junior, Marquie Cooke, a 6-3 point guard from Nansemond River High School in Norfolk. Greenberg was headed to the Georgia-Florida all-star game and was hoping to speak with Tech fall signees Jamon Gordon and Coleman Collins.

AS EXPECTED, UVA RECRUITING target Jason Cain, a 6-10 forward from John Bartram High School in Philadelphia, was on the way to Charlottesville on Friday afternoon for an official visit. UVa has one more scholarship at its disposal after getting commitments earlier this spring from T.J. Bannister and Donte Minter.

ONE OF THE MORE OUTRAGEOUS statements I have read lately came from recruiting analyst Max Emfinger, who compared Fork Union Military Academy quarterback Brett Weyman to Tennessee's Casey Clausen and Alabama's Brodie Croyle, two of the top-rated quarterbacks to enter the college ranks in recent years.

"On his recent highlight tape, Weyman demonstrated a lot of of the same skills that made Clausen and Coyle two of my top-rated quarterbacks in the country," Emfinger wrote. "Weyman has the Casey Clausen cool and the Brodie Croyle arm."

Keep in mind that Weyman is enrolling at Tennessee as a walk-on, but Emfinger persists: "With all of his tremendous upside skills, I look for him to become a Vol quarterback starter. Talk about excitement. This is going to be a real thriller for all of the Vol nation."

Fork Union coach John Shuman is high on Weyman and thinks he should have received more serious Division I-A scholarship interest. Weyman, originally from Charleston, S.C., played one year at a Connecticut private school before spending his senior year of high school at FUMA.

When I saw Weyman against Hargrave, frankly, he didn't impress me. Shuman points out that Weyman was one year younger than many of the postgraduates on the field and "if he went out there now, he might throw four touchdown passes," Shuman said.

So, maybe Emfinger does know what he's talking about, but I'm a little skeptical.

SPEAKING OF FORK Union and Hargrave, Hargrave football coach Bob Prunty said he had not been contacted about All-Group AA cornerback Philip Brown, who is back home in Hampton after two months at Hargrave.

"If he doesn't like marching, he's got to know that we do that here, too," Prunty said.