Syracuse lands Sun Belt defensive star after Donnie Freeman transfer

The Syracuse Orange lost a major piece of last season’s team with the departure of Donnie Freeman to St. John’s via the transfer portal, but the team landed the commitment of a defensive-minded big man to help bolster their frontcourt depth in Luke Wilson from Appalachian State, as per Sam Federman of NunesMagician.com.

Wilson’s commitment to Syracuse gives the Orange five new players via the transfer portal this offseason. He joins former McNeese state guard Garey Duwal, former Siena guard Gavin Doty, former Siena center Tasman Goodrick and former Temple wing Aiden Tobiason as the incoming transfers for the 2026-27 season.

Wilson is coming off a breakout season in which he was named the Sun Belt Conference Defensive Player of the Year. He redshirted his freshman season in 2023-24, played sparingly as a redshirt freshman in 2024-25, then earned a starting role this past year as a redshirt sophomore.

He appeared in 32 games, including 30 starts, at a little over 28 minutes per game. He averaged a career-best 10.7 points, 8.3 rebounds and 1.8 blocked shots with splits of 64.2 percent shooting from the field and 56.7 percent shooting from the free-throw line.

Syracuse is entering a new era with hometown hero Gerry McNamara taking the reins as head coach. McNamara played all four years of his college basketball career at Syracuse, playing a key role in the Orange’s 2003 championship run as a freshman.

The Orange are looking to get back into the NCAA Tournament after five straight seasons of missing out on the Big Dance. They did not make the tournament in the three seasons that former coach Adrian Autry was at the helm.

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