Autry gave some clarity on why Freeman made the decision to undergo a procedure to address his current injury.
Syracuse Orange men’s basketball coach Adrian Autry provided new information on freshman forward Donnie Freeman — one of the ACC’s best first-year players who was officially ruled out for the rest of the 2024-25 season.
During the ACC’s weekly coaches call on Monday, Autry confirmed Freeman will be undergoing foot surgery.
The program initially announced Saturday that he would have a procedure, but it was unclear for what specifically. On January 8, Freeman was ruled out and considered “day-to-day” with a lower right leg injury that he got during Syracuse’s game against Florida State on January 4.
“Everybody just wanted to make sure we got we gathered all the information… once we gathered all information, we all thought that was the best route for him to go, is to move along with the procedure and… get himself ready and for his future,” Autry said during the coaches call.
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Autry also confirmed if waiting to possibly see if the injury healed “was an option.”
“He was patient… you know he wanted to play. He’s a competitor,” Autry said. “But you know, I think you know for his future, it was best that he do this procedure.”
Autry could not (obviously) disclose what specific procedure Freeman would have to do. What we can confirm is that the injury involved Freeman’s right foot and the procedure will be taking place sometime this week.
Prior to his injury, Freeman was averaging 13.4 PPG and 7.9 RPG on 50% shooting in 14 games for the Orange. He played over 25 minutes per game, including 13 mainly as Syracuse’s starting power forward.
Without speculating much, the key bigger picture takeaway isn’t necessarily the injury itself, but the decision for Freeman to get this procedure done now and Autry’s remarks specifically looking at his future, wherever that may be beyond 2024-25.
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Freeman entered his tenure with the Orange as one of the program’s best recruits on paper. He had the third-highest ever 247Sports composite score among all of Syracuse’s recruits dating back to 2003. In the months leading up to formally making his debut, Freeman was named to the McDonald’s All-American Game and was earning his way up the rankings of the major recruiting sites.
That earned him some very high projections in the NBA mock drafts leading into this college basketball season. The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie at one point had Freeman projected to go No. 12 overall in a mock released on Oct. 10th.
However, the most recent mock drafts show a slightly different projection now compared to the start of the year.
Vecenie’s most recent mock draft (with the caveat that it was released on January 9, right as Freeman was dealing with this injury) had Freeman going roughly in the middle of the second round (No. 38 overall). The most recent mock drafts from ESPN and Bleacher Report, both released a month ago, did not list Freeman as a projected top-60 pick in the upcoming 2025 NBA Draft.
Looking as best as possible from Freeman’s perspective, if this was going to be a nagging injury (all signs based on what we know point to it), getting the surgery now rather than potentially entering the draft process with a red flag or two makes a lot of sense. That rationale can also be extended to his general future — whether it’s declaring for the draft or staying in college in some capacity.
Of course, we again can’t confirm Freeman’s plans as of this point are to declare for the draft right after this year concludes. Once the season concludes, we’ll have plenty of coverage breaking down Freeman’s stock as a prospect and the many factors in his decision to decide what comes next.
It’s also clear based on this confirmed information now available, Freeman’s basketball future (and specifically protecting it as much as possible) was a priority for all parties involved.
As for this year’s Orange, the team will primarily rely on Jyáre Davis to continue his role as the full-time starting four with some additional contributions mainly needed from Petar Majstorovic.