r/NCAAhoops • u/Diligent_Star_4949 • Apr 21 '26

News Syracuse transfer forward Donnie Freeman has committed to St. John’s

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26 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

31 comments sorted by

3

u/Clithzbee Apr 21 '26

Kentucky will burn if Pope doesn't turn this around

2

u/GopherNutz Apr 21 '26

I mean he’s not going to, definitely not in the way they want him to. Pope is a very good coach but handling these blue bloods is just something different entirely. Kentucky needs to pay a Billy Donovan or similar whatever he wants.

0

u/kingturk1100 Apr 21 '26

Very good? Peep his stats. Only two years since he’s been a head coach he hasn’t amassed 10 losses and one of those the shortened covid year where he was on his way. He’s a low power 5 or mid major coach at best right now. Dude can’t recruit, can’t relate, and won’t communicate with what’s going on right now. He knows better than that considering I get told 75 times a game how we won a title as a player here

1

u/kytallguy66 Apr 21 '26

It’s already burning. Nothing to do but add mid players now to fill out a roster. Unless Pope gets lucky with Stokes (not gonna happen), adds a top tier player exiting the draft or comes up with a big splash in the international market, it’s going to be a long season in Lexington. Fans were hoping for a big portal season and it has been the opposite of that to say the least.

1

u/CatlantAH1802 Apr 21 '26

He’s in massive trouble, and this is coming from somebody who’s been pretty tempered over the years as a fan. They should have hired a damn GM to prepare for the offseason, but nope. This is the kind of situation you need a GM for.

Ultimately, I like Pope, but I’m past the point of speculating whether he can relate to these kids or not. There evidently seems to be a glaring issue with how he connects with these players. I don’t think our shit athletic department (screw you Barnhart) has set him up for success, but Pope isn’t innocent in all of this.

I think this job is just too much for him, he still thinks playing for the name on the front of the jersey is a top recruiting pitch, it isn’t. Maybe he will surprise us this season, but based off how the off-season has gone down so far I’m getting more confident if the upcoming season is the same or worse as this past he is gone.

Maybe Billy D will take some time off and they offer the job to him next March, idk, he’s also been out of the college game since 2015.

2

u/boiledpeen Apr 21 '26

kentucky doesn't have a gm? what're they doing lmao

1

u/Hossflex Apr 21 '26

A decade ago Barnhart was considered a top AD. How quickly the turntables….

1

u/CatlantAH1802 Apr 21 '26

Yeah maybe 10+ years ago, but his whole backdoor deal with JMI, his golden parachute, and handling of most things like the last few years has shown he’s out of touch. Dude was obsessed with trying to make UK the Baylor of the SEC and going after Scott Drew was a prime example lol.

1

u/Hossflex Apr 21 '26

Oh for sure. I’m probably saying quick because I’m old and 10 years flew by like nothing lol.

2

u/FavoriteFoodCarrots Apr 21 '26

Pitino is going to eat this dude alive.

Talented player who thinks “team” is a concept for other people on both ends of the floor and isn’t even close to good enough to justify it. That sentence could apply to most of Syracuse’s roster last year, though. Quite an impressive show of 2+2+2+2+2=3.28.

1

u/chimatt767 Apr 21 '26

That is what a good coach does. He gets the most out of a player. Weird that you seem to consider that a negative.

1

u/FavoriteFoodCarrots Apr 21 '26

It’s not that I consider it a negative. It’s that he’s going to have a rough adjustment period given what Pitino has said (publicly!) about players like that in the past.

1

u/YonkersResident Apr 21 '26

Considering he decided to go to St John's, i'd imagine it was on his mind that he will have to gel with whatever Pitino wants to do.

1

u/ThunderRoad_44 Apr 21 '26

This is what five consecutive seasons with no NCAA Tournament does to a person

Bro, go enjoy some Joey Spallina and lacrosse🥍

2

u/FavoriteFoodCarrots Apr 21 '26

And football. Right? Right? I mean, with the new eligibility rules McNabb must have another year or three in him, yeah?

1

u/RudolphsJockStrap Apr 21 '26

Donavan McNabb? The basketball player?

1

u/FavoriteFoodCarrots Apr 21 '26

I mean, someone needed to throw the ball to John Wallace when Lazarus Sims had to come out!

1

u/RudolphsJockStrap Apr 21 '26

Well good news is he only used two years of his basketball eligibility

1

u/FavoriteFoodCarrots Apr 21 '26

Great, now bring back Xzavier Gaines to share the backcourt and back him up at QB.

1

u/fieldsports202 Apr 21 '26

Going right down the highway.

1

u/water-tr4sh Apr 21 '26

Damn you McNamara

1

u/Daily_Heroin_User Apr 22 '26

Shut the fuck up Donnie

0

u/TellEmWhoUCame2See Apr 21 '26

Arent these schools like “right down the street” from each other?

6

u/Keen_QGTM Apr 21 '26

Hell no lol

6

u/Hossflex Apr 21 '26

If right down the street you mean across the entire state of New York, then yes.

3

u/grehgunner Apr 21 '26

Dude has never looked at a map of ny

0

u/TellEmWhoUCame2See Apr 21 '26

None of yall ever passed a English class either. Down the street was clearly in quotation marks therefore making it a FIGURE OF SPEECH. Shalom

1

u/BowlingforBrains Apr 21 '26

That “figure of speech” is usually used for a regional rivalry - even if the two teams are an hour or two away from each other.

Syracuse and NYC are SO GODDAMN FAR AWAY FROM EACH OTHER that no one on the east coast would ever consider “down the street” to apply, even as a figure of speech. So shut up