Las Vegas – Donnie Freeman is officially out for the Players Era Festival, Syracuse spokesman Pete Moore said Monday.
Freeman, SU’s star sophomore forward, is unavailable to play this week because of an unspecified lower body injury. He is here in Las Vegas and will be reevaluated when the team returns to Syracuse later this week. The hope is that this is not a season-ending injury and that Freeman will heal through rehabilitation and return to the team.
The injury, said Moore, is not related to the foot fracture Freeman sustained last winter and recovered from. He was injured during last week’s Monmouth game in the JMA Wireless Dome and wore a medical walking boot for about 24 hours after the issue surfaced.
He’s worn it on occasion since, Moore said, but has not continually needed the boot to get around.
Questions about Freeman’s status had swirled since Saturday, when SU’s official men’s basketball account tweeted a Las Vegas photo of Freeman walking down stairs of a chartered plane in a medical walking boot.
SU had issued no official word on his status until Monday.
Freeman’s absence is a devastating development for a Syracuse team that will face No. 3 Houston and national brand Kansas on Monday and Tuesday here in the PEF. SU then faces another as-yet-determined opponent either Wednesday or Thursday. The Orange hosts No. 17 Tennessee next week in the ACC/SEC Challenge.
An injury to a star player is always concerning, but the timing of Freeman’s injury hurts. This is an important stretch of SU’s non-conference schedule, which aside from four straight games that begin Monday, consists of mainly lower-ranked Division I opponents.
SU will face 6-foot-11 highly regarded Houston freshman forward Chris Cenac on Monday. It plays another outstanding freshman talent in Tennessee’s 6-10 Nate Ament next week. Tennessee, too, has PJ Estrella at its disposal. Estrella, a 6-11 sophomore who has had his own injury issues, played well in limited minutes in Monday’s PEF opener against Rutgers.
Freeman, through four games, was SU’s leading scorer (17.8 points per game) and second-leading rebounder (5.2) behind William Kyle. He has been the Orange men’s best free throw shooter and is a cornerstone on which SU built its off-season roster.
SU coach Adrian Autry has frequently talked about the importance of bringing back Freeman and JJ Starling this season. Both are pivotal players who missed parts of last season with injuries.
And yet this season, both players have also dealt with injury issues: Starling broke a finger during the summer and had a hamstring issue that caused him to miss three games. And now, Freeman is sidelined for an indefinite period.
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