{"id":714945,"date":"2026-04-21T02:32:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T02:32:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/714945\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T02:32:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T02:32:34","slug":"sources-transfer-donnie-freeman-commits-to-st-johns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/714945\/","title":{"rendered":"Sources: Transfer Donnie Freeman commits to St. John’s"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Jeff BorzelloApr 20, 2026, 10:08 PM ET<\/p>\n

Close<\/a> Basketball recruiting insider.
\n Joined ESPN in 2014.
\n Graduate of University of Delaware.<\/p>\n

Multiple Authors<\/p>\n

Syracuse<\/a> transfer Donnie Freeman<\/a> committed to St. John’s<\/a>, sources told ESPN on Monday, with the Red Storm beating out Kentucky<\/a> for the talented forward.<\/p>\n

Freeman was one of the best players left in the portal<\/a>, a versatile 6-foot-9 forward who is coming off an honorable mention All-ACC season. A top-10 recruit in the 2024 high school class, Freeman averaged 16.5 points and 7.2 rebounds as a sophomore.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

1 Related<\/p>\n

The Washington, D.C., native posted 13.4 points and 7.9 rebounds as a freshman, but his season was cut short because of a fracture in his right foot. Freeman also suffered a lower-body injury in November, missing nine games before returning for the start of ACC play.<\/p>\n

Kentucky had been the perceived favorite for Freeman’s commitment for most of the past couple of weeks, welcoming him on campus for a visit last week. But over the past 48 hours, St. John’s surged, and Rick Pitino finished ahead of his former player, Mark Pope.<\/p>\n

Freeman will slot immediately into St. John’s starting frontcourt next season, helping to replace forwards Dillon Mitchell<\/a> and Bryce Hopkins<\/a>. Freeman is the first transfer portal addition for the Red Storm, joining a pair of international pickups in point guard Quinn Ellis and wing Djordje Jovanovic.<\/p>\n

Pitino’s top target left in the portal is Arizona State<\/a> transfer Massamba Diop<\/a>, who is expected to visit St. John’s campus this week. The Red Storm are battling Gonzaga<\/a> for the talented 7-foot freshman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jeff BorzelloApr 20, 2026, 10:08 PM ET Close Basketball recruiting insider. Joined ESPN in 2014. Graduate of University…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,217,231,772,1544],"class_list":{"0":"post-714945","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college-basketball","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-basketball","12":"tag-ncaab"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116440358709419619","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}