Fabricio de Melo is a center on the Syracuse University basketball team. He was born and raised in Brazil.

Melo would come to Syracuse as a McDonald's All-American, though he played only one year of high school basketball in the United States, and only learned to play basketball at the age of 15.

There were high expectations of Melo his freshman year. He was the Big East Preseason Rookie of the Year. However, he quickly showed that he was not ready for the collegiate game. Melo picked up fouls very quickly, had a tough time getting to any rebounds, and had a tough time moving up and down the court. He would find his playing time limited to 5-6 minutes a game. Melo would also aggravate his achilles tendon, which would also hamper his game. He started the first 24 games of the season, but would miss a couple of games due to failing to show up to practice, and would be replaced in the starting lineup by classmate Baye Keita, who had outplayed Melo all year anyhow.

Melo would start to show signs of development at the end of the season when he scored 10 points in a win over DePaul. He then had his best game of the year in the Big East Tournament with 12 points in the win over St. John's. Most impressive was that Jim Boeheim left Melo on the floor during the crunch time of the game, and Melo responded with some excellent defense and smart passing. Melo did not show anything during the remaining three games of the post season, but in those two games he did display some of his potential.

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