More than anything else, I hope that injured Syracuse basketball power forward Donnie Freeman has a speedy recovery.
The talented freshman will miss the rest of the 2024-25 season due to a lower right-leg injury, the program announced via social media on February 8.
Statement from the men's basketball program regarding freshman forward Donnie Freeman pic.twitter.com/rhFBd2Sxm5
— Syracuse Men’s Basketball (@Cuse_MBB) February 8, 2025
Freeman, who hails from Washington, D.C., appeared in 14 games this term, averaging 13.4 points, 7.9 rebounds and 1.4 assists per contest while making 50.4 percent from the field, 79.6 percent from the free-throw line and 33.3 percent from beyond the arc. Before his injury, he was the Orange's leading rebounder in 2024-25.
Syracuse basketball fans had high hopes for Freeman as a freshman, as he came to the Hill as the team's highest-ranked commit since Carmelo Anthony back in 2002-03. However, my personal take is that some fans had unrealistic expectations for Freeman; he's not Melo. No one is.
Yes, in the 2024 recruiting cycle, Freeman was a consensus five-star, top-15 national prospect rated as high as No. 6 overall in this class. And from my perspective, he was having a pretty darn solid freshman campaign before he got hurt.
Why I think Donnie Freeman will return to Syracuse basketball next season.
So. I've gone on record that I don't think the Orange program has been all that forthcoming about Freeman's status for 2024-25 of late, but that's neither here nor there at this juncture.
But amid the lack of clarity over Freeman, a contingent of fans have stated on social media and in chat rooms that they think he will transfer this coming off-season, assuming he doesn't head to the professional ranks (and I don't think he will).
While I don't know about what's going on behind the scenes with Freeman and his conversations with 'Cuse coaches, what I will say is that should he come back to college for a sophomore stanza, I don't envision him transferring.
I get the skepticism. After 2023-24, a lot of Orange players transferred out. But keep in mind that many of those guys were recruits of former head coach Jim Boeheim, not current Syracuse basketball head coach Adrian Autry.
Plus, as far as I can tell, Freeman is quite close with Autry and assistant coach Brenden Straughn, who both have deep recruiting connections in the D.C. metropolitan area, especially to Freeman's former AAU program, the Washington-based Team Takeover in Nike's EYBL league.
What's more, if Freeman is back with the 'Cuse in 2025-26, he'll have the opportunity to compete with the four members of the Orange's 2025 recruiting class at the prep level, and those signees include four-star forward Sadiq White Jr. from Charlotte, N.C., and four-star shooting guard Kiyan Anthony from New York City.
That could prove enticing to Freeman. Naturally, if a sophomore term in college is his future plan, Freeman could enter the transfer portal. Name, image and likeness money could be a factor. But perhaps not.
I don't have a crystal ball here. I am not in Donnie's inner circle. At the same time, my fellow Syracuse basketball fans who continue to opine that Freeman is 100 percent hitting the portal, I'll have to respectfully disagree with those assertions.