St. John's Donnie Freeman will miss season with Achilles tendon injury
Donnie Freeman, formerly of Syracuse, looks on during the second half of a basketball game against North Carolina on Feb. 2, 2026 in Chapel Hill, NC. Credit: Getty Images/David Jensen
St. John’s met its first adversity of the 2026-27 season before it has even played a game.
Donnie Freeman, the highly-sought 6-9 transfer from Syracuse, suffered an Achilles tendon injury and will miss the entire season, Red Storm coach Rick Pitino announced in a social media post on Wednesday afternoon.
Pitino’s post said that the junior’s injury came during a workout and did not involve contact. The St. John's coach also said that he’d already had surgery to repair it by Dr. Martin O’Malley and that the program expects to have him back for the 2027-28 season.
“Donnie is an awesome young man, we will get him back better than ever!” Pitino’s dispatch concluded.
Freeman’s April commitment to St. John’s was a relative shocker as it seemed he was destined to sign with Kentucky. As a sophomore at Syracuse, he averaged 16.5 points and 7.2 rebounds in 31.3 minutes over 23 games.
During two seasons at Syracuse, Freeman missed time to injury in each. He played the first 14 games of his freshman season before what was termed a “lower leg” injury ended that season. He returned from a fractured right foot during his sophomore season to play in 23 games.
The entire 2026-27 St. John’s roster is expected to be on campus by the conclusion of this weekend with summer workouts to begin next week. Some players, including Freeman, have been on campus, participating in workouts already.
Nothing is formally in place, but Freeman likely projected to be the Red Storm’s starting power forward this coming season. The program does have some depth that could help it compensate including Babacar Sane, a 6-8 forward from Senegal who last season played professionally in Germany’s top league.
The Storm also has 7-foot Serbian Lazar Stojkovic and 6-11 highly-rated incoming freshman Theo Edema, who might have been envisioned as depth behind starting center Ruben Prey, but may now have a chance to earn more time.
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
