Syracuse Basketball: 5-star priority big continues to impress in the spotlight

Five-star Donnie Freeman, one of the best prospects in the 2024 class, is a Syracuse basketball recruiting target and seems to be a priority for the Orange coaching staff in this cycle.

While that’s wonderful to hear, and the 6-foot-9 power forward has spoken highly of the ‘Cuse program on multiple occasions, I expect the Orange’s competition for Freeman to significantly expand in the near future.

For one, come June 15, college coaches will be able to make direct contact with 2024 high-school players. So on that day or shortly thereafter, it wouldn’t surprise me if Freeman sees many more big-time offers arrive for him.

Secondly, during the spring AAU circuit and at other recent events, Freeman has earned a ton of praise from national recruiting analysts and scouts for his performances.

That, in turn, could lead his 2024 national rankings to climb even higher. And Freeman’s impressive play on national stages should result in him picking up additional formidable suitors.

Syracuse basketball got involved with five-star Donnie Freeman early on.

The Orange coaching staff offered a scholarship to Freeman this past August at the team’s annual Elite Camp. His offer was the first one doled out by Syracuse basketball coaches in the 2024 cycle, and that’s important to note.

As a sophomore, Freeman put forth a really nice 2021-22 campaign for St. John’s College High School in Washington, D.C. More recently, he’s delivered the goods on the AAU tour for the Washington-based Team Takeover in Nike’s EYBL league.

We noted the other day that Freeman participated at the recently held Pangos All-American Camp in Las Vegas, where he competed against some of the top high-school prospects across the country in several recruiting classes.

Freeman had a couple of strong games, as we noted in another recent column. And a handful of national analysts and scouts took notice of Freeman’s performances.

Well-respected scout Ari Rosenfeld, the owner of ELITE High School Scouting, said in a tweet that Freeman was one of his biggest stock risers at the Pangos All-American Camp, and that’s a huge compliment to the ‘Cuse recruiting target in my opinion.

According to social-media posts that I read, Freeman was selected for this event’s top-60 cream of the crop contest, which is a terrific honor.

Freeman, whom some experts say has longer-term pro potential, has received praise from analysts and scouts for his play at other recent AAU competitions, including the Mayhem in Maryland event that took place in Baltimore.

To date, besides Syracuse basketball, his other offers include from Alabama, Maryland, Georgetown, Virginia Tech, Xavier, George Mason and Old Dominion.

Freeman has said in a couple of recent interviews that he would like to visit the Hill in the future, which is encouraging. However, as I said earlier, the number of college squads vying for Freeman is going to increase, and sooner rather than later.

At the time of this writing, the industry-generated 247Sports Composite rated Freeman as five stars, No. 25 nationally, No. 4 at power forward and No. 1 in D.C. within the 2024 cycle.