Syracuse basketball has a lot of analyst buzz for 4-star big man from D.C.

Four-star junior big man Donnie Freeman from Washington, D.C., is set to make his college decision soon, and Syracuse basketball is receiving a lot of analyst buzz in his recruitment.

Naturally, this is encouraging news. But it doesn’t guarantee that the 6-foot-9 power forward is going to choose the ‘Cuse.

These sorts of predictions from national analysts and other recruiting insiders are often accurate, but they’re not always 100 percent correct. Last spring, for example, DePaul was receiving a good amount of analyst buzz in the recruitment of Judah Mintz, but as we all know, Mintz ended up committing to Syracuse basketball.

In any event, when I penned this column, at least six projections had arrived in the direction of the Orange in Freeman’s recruitment between the 247Sports Web site, Rivals.com and the On3 Web site. Let’s see how this all pans out.

Syracuse basketball appears to have momentum with 2024 four-star big man Donnie Freeman.

Freeman is planning to announce his commitment on Thursday, May 11, at 3:30 pm via the 247Sports YouTube page.

His five finalists are the Orange, Alabama, Iowa, Texas and Georgia Tech. He has taken official visits to all of these schools, except Georgia Tech, which only offered him a scholarship in late April.

While Freeman has picked up nearly 20 offers throughout his recruiting process, Syracuse basketball has pursued him for a long time, offering him a scholarship back in August of 2021.

Recently, the ‘Cuse coaching staff has traveled twice to D.C. to meet with Freeman. Orange coaches watched him in late April during NCAA live periods on the AAU circuit. And Freeman has said his official visit to the Hill, which occurred in early April, went well.

Freeman had a standout junior season for the nationally-ranked St. John’s College High School in D.C. In the 2022-23 term, he received a variety of local, regional and national honors in helping guide St. John’s College High School to the 2023 Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (“WCAC”) tournament title.

In grassroots basketball, Freeman suits up for the Washington-based Team Takeover in Nike’s EYBL league. Two of his colleagues with this AAU program, 2024 four-star wing Caleb Williams and 2024 four-star center Patrick Ngongba II, were recently offered by the Orange.

Syracuse basketball head coach Adrian Autry and assistant coach Brenden Straughn both previously served as assistants with the Team Takeover program.

We won’t know one way or another where Freeman is headed until Thursday afternoon. But it does seem that the ‘Cuse is looking good in his recruitment. Freeman is a top-40 national prospect in the junior cycle.

If he were to pick the Orange, he would join four-star shooting guard Elijah Moore from New York City in the team’s 2024 class. The 6-foot-4 Moore, who verbally committed to Syracuse basketball in late January, is a top-70 overall player in this cycle.