Here here!
I remember the first time I got a decent look at the completed Melo Center. I was with OE. I think we had just finished golfing and decided to drive by the campus and see if the Melo Center was open. It was during the summer, sometime in mid August I believe.
The Melo Center itself was locked up but the Hall of Fame corridor was open and they had the videos that are part of it running. And the nicely done new setup exhibiting athletic trophies in the lobby of Manley had just been completed and was available for review as well.
We spent a good hour or two running around, looking at different exhibits, trophies, videos, etc. Had a great time. But the whole time we were doing this, there was someone else in there with us. A tall, pretty African American girl who looked like an athlete. Way too tall for it to be a coincidence she was spending so much time looking at SU basketball exhibits with the same interest we had.
I knew we had received a verbal from a center from Canada who was supposed to be good. Remembered her name was Kayla Alexander. I whispered, 'that has to be Kayla Alexander, the new center from Canada' to OE.
OE being OE, he immediately went over to her and asked if she was Kayla. When she replied yes (quite amazed someone knew who she was), she and OE had a nice conversation, with Dan giving her a warm welcome to Syracuse.
Hard to believe that was almost 5 years ago. She was a terrific player and representative for SU and I am going to miss watching her play. Best of luck to her in the pros.
I hope she has a couple of younger sisters.
By the way, if you are a Syracuse hoops fan and you have never gone down to Manley and checked out that Hall of Fame hallway that connects Manley to the Melo Center, you really should the next time you are in the area. It is really well done and will either stimulate some great memories of past teams and players, or educate you on the storied history of Syrause basketball in the event you are a relatively new fan.
