The Syracuse Orange are about to play two of their toughest games of the season.
They're in Las Vegas, and on Monday night, they take on No. 1 Houston. Then SU turns around on Tuesday and plays Kansas.
They might have to do it without Donnie Freeman, who had some injury news emerge over the weekend that doesn't seem good.
Donnie Freeman injury update
There was no known Freeman injury until this weekend.
Syracuse.com's Donna Ditota explained in a new article how a social media photo has created worry:
About dinner time in Syracuse on Saturday, the Syracuse men’s basketball account tweeted photos of the team touching down in Las Vegas, site of this week’s Players Era Festival.
In a photo that was soon deleted, Freeman was seen walking down the stairs of a chartered plane wearing a medical walking boot on his right foot.
An SU spokesman, responding a day later to a question about Freeman’s status, said there was “nothing to report at this time.”
SU has offered no official word about Freeman from the time the photo appeared on Twitter until hours before Monday’s tipoff against Houston here in the Players Era Festival.
The ACC requires its teams to report the injury status of players the day before a game, no later than 8 p.m. Local time (in this case, Pacific Time). But those rules only apply to conference games.
Freeman is Syracuse's leading scorer on the season, averaging 17.8 points per game.
He is also averaging 5.2 rebounds per game in his second season on campus after being a top-tier recruit before arriving at SU.
Freeman missed double-digit games last season with a Jones fracture to the fifth metatarsal in his right foot.
"It’s unclear whether Freeman has an injury related to his previous foot fracture or whether something else necessitates wearing a boot," Ditota writes.
In addition to the Houston and Kansas games, Syracuse will play another opponent at the Players Era Festival on either Wednesday or Thursday, depending on their initial results. SU also takes on Tennessee on Tuesday, Dec. 2.
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