St. John’s Loses Donnie Freeman to Achilles Injury Before 2026-27 Season Starts
St. John’s just got the worst kind of injury news in the middle of July, months before a game means anything.
Forward Donnie Freeman tore his Achilles during a workout this week and will miss the entire 2026-27 season, sources told several college basketball reporters on Wednesday. That is a devastating blow to Rick Pitino’s second season back at St. John’s, and a personal setback for a player who was set to be one of the key pieces in Pitino’s rotation.
Freeman transferred to St. John’s from Syracuse this offseason and was expected to slot in as a stretch forward who could play both power positions in Pitino’s system. He averaged 12.4 points and 5.1 rebounds at Syracuse last season and was widely considered one of the more valuable transfer additions in the Big East.
Achilles injuries in basketball are the worst kind. The recovery is long, typically 9 to 12 months for a return, and players often do not get their explosion back for another six months after that. A player who tears his Achilles in July of one year is often not the same player he was for two full seasons after.
The medical piece is a personal issue for Freeman first. He was 21 years old, in the prime of his college career, working out to prepare for a season that was supposed to be his showcase for NBA scouts. That is gone. He now has a long road of surgery, rehab, and mental grinding ahead of him before he ever plays another meaningful basketball game.
For Pitino, the challenge is finding a rotation piece to fill the frontcourt void. Late July is a bad time to lose a player. The transfer portal window is closed. Most of the summer’s roster movement has happened. St. John’s has to work with what is already on the roster and try to develop internal answers.
The Red Storm still have depth. RJ Luis Jr. returned from the transfer portal after briefly declaring for the NBA Draft. Kadary Richmond gives Pitino a proven scorer. Zuby Ejiofor is a returning frontcourt piece. But Freeman was supposed to be the versatile forward who let Pitino play different lineups. Losing him limits what the coaching staff can do.
St. John’s was supposed to be a top-15 team in the country to start the season. They may still be. But losing Freeman drops them a notch in most rankings and puts more pressure on the rest of the roster to produce.
The Big East is a stacked league next year. UConn is loading up again. Villanova has a real roster. Marquette has been consistent. Georgetown is trying to climb back into relevance under Ed Cooley. St. John’s has to compete in this environment without one of its expected top-five players.
The good news is that Pitino has done this before. He has always been an excellent in-season coach who can maximize whatever roster he has. He will find rotations that work. He will develop players who were not expected to play big minutes.
For Freeman, the redshirt year should allow him to keep his NCAA eligibility. He could return to St. John’s for a 2027-28 season with a chip on his shoulder and a fully healthy Achilles. That is the best-case outcome from a bad situation, and one everyone in the St. John’s program should be pulling for.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
