Syracuse Basketball: A massive development as two key players will return next season

Amid the transfer portal officially opening this past Monday, Syracuse basketball has seen several of its 2024-25 players decide to enter the portal.

On Tuesday in the late afternoon, the Orange disclosed a tremendously positive piece of news regarding its 2025-26 term. Per a press release from SU Athletics, junior guard J.J. Starling and freshman power forward Donnie Freeman "have announced their intention to return to Syracuse next season."

Just awesome, fabulous news.

Due to injuries, both the 6-foot-4 Starling and the 6-foot-9 Freeman missed time during the 2024-25 stanza, when the 'Cuse went 14-19 overall and missed the NCAA Tournament for the fourth straight season.

This past term, Starling was out for seven games, while Freeman, a consensus five-star prospect in the 2024 class, appeared in just 14 contests. They were the top-two scorers on the Orange's 2024-25 roster.

Syracuse basketball's best two players will return next year.

Starling, who hails from Central New York, received an honorable mention nod for the 2024-25 All-ACC teams. He averaged 34.5 minutes, 17.8 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game while making 40.7 percent from the field, 26.8 percent from beyond the arc and 68.5 percent from the free-throw line.

Freeman, who came to the Hill from Washington, D.C., would have proven a significant contender for the ACC's All-Rookie squad had he not gotten injured. He averaged 25.4 minutes, 13.4 points, 7.9 rebounds and 1.4 assists per encounter while connecting on 50.4 percent from the field, 33.3 percent from 3-point range and 79.6 percent from the charity stripe.

In 2024-25, the 'Cuse had 12 scholarship players. Five exhausted their eligibility. Four have announced their plans to enter the portal: redshirt sophomore guard/wing Chance Westry, redshirt junior guard Kyle Cuffe Jr., junior small forward Chris Bell and freshman guard Elijah Moore.

The only other 2024-25 player for Syracuse basketball that we're still waiting to hear on pertaining to his future plans is freshman big man Petar Majstorovic. My hunch is that he will return next season.

Then, at the high school level, the team's 2025 class consists of four-star shooting guard Kiyan Anthony, four-star forward Sadiq White Jr., four-star combo guard Luke Fennell and three-star wing Aaron Womack.

Syracuse basketball coaches have numerous scholarships available for 2025-26. From my perspective, some of the most important areas of need for the Orange to focus on this off-season are landing a true point guard out of the portal, as well as a small forward on the wing who can stroke it from deep, and a center.

But first things first. Retaining Starling and Freeman was massive.