Syracuse, N.Y. – He sat in a folding chair in the Syracuse locker room, surrounded by reporters.
Donnie Freeman, his voice barely audible, his hoodie framing his face, was there to accept responsibility for what happened minutes earlier in the JMA Wireless Dome.
“It’s nobody’s fault but mine,” he said. “I mean, I’m taking full ownership for these past two games. It’s an uphill battle from here. We just gotta take it day-by-day and I just gotta be better.
“I gotta be better.”
Syracuse sustained a gut-punch to its 2025-26 season Wednesday night. The Orange, which led by seven at the half against Virginia Tech, was outscored 46-37 in the second half and lost 76-74.
The SU season, teetering after a loss at Boston College, now needs serious resuscitation. The Orange schedule is no longer dotted with the dregs of the ACC.
Freeman turned the ball over seven times against BC and missed the front end of a 1-and-1 that could have sealed that game in Chestnut Hill. But he also scored 19 points on 7-of-14 shooting and hauled in 14 rebounds.
Wednesday was different.
Against the Hokies, he shot 3-of-14 and committed four turnovers. The ball tended to stick when he caught it.
Virginia Tech turned him, essentially, into a jump shooter. Syracuse coach Adrian Autry said the Hokies were physical with Freeman around the basket. They sometimes sent a guard to double-team him.
Mike Young, the Virginia Tech coach, wanted his team to be aware that Freeman had a dominant right hand. He assigned upperclassmen Amani Hansberry and Tobi Lawal to Freeman and provided instruction on how to guard him.
“You cannot let him catch it and face up from 15 feet where he’s really, really good,” Young said.
Freeman wanted so much to be the difference-maker in the last half of this season, when the Orange would presumably prove how much better they were with him than without him.
And for several games, he delivered. Maybe more than what anybody anticipated.
Freeman entered the Virginia Tech game averaging 22.2 points and nine rebounds in five ACC games since returning from injury.
These last two games have been less than storybook.
Freeman talked about his failure to make that critical free throw Saturday. He bluntly assessed what happened on a late Virginia Tech free throw miss. SU trailed 74-71 with 6 seconds left when Lawal soared over Freeman and snagged the board.
“I just didn’t get it. No excuse,” Freeman said. “These little things are starting to haunt us now. Missed free throw box out in this game. Missed free throw last game. That’s two games that I’ve caused, back-to-back. And it’s painful. But it’s part of the game.”
Syracuse had more issues than Freeman on Wednesday. Somehow, the Orange failed to get the ball inside to William Kyle in the second half. Kyle scored 10 in the first half and then never attempted another shot.
The Orange put the more aggressive Hokies on the free throw line an astonishing 33 times in the second half. The Hokies took 24 more free throws than SU in that closing half. Overall, Virginia Tech outscored SU 26-12 at the line.
It also outscored SU 16-8 in points off turnovers and 25-15 in fast break opportunities.
Freeman, though, blamed nobody but himself. He was not in that somber Syracuse locker room, he said, to point the finger at anybody else.
“Honestly, I’m as hard on myself as anybody else,” he said. “I feel like I’ve let my team down and the fans and everybody around me these past two games. And that’s not an easy pill to swallow.
“But it’s time to put this behind me and get ready to get a big win against Miami that we desperately need. Every game from here on out, we gotta play (with) desperation. And I just gotta be better for us and the fans.”
