College basketball rankings: Donnie Freeman's injury knocks St. John's down in early Top 25 And 1
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- St. John's dropped to No. 17 in CBS Sports' Version 19 preseason Top 25 And 1 after Donnie Freeman tore his Achilles in a noncontact workout, with surgery already performed.
- Rick Pitino wrote on social media that "Donnie is an awesome young man" and promised to "get him back better than ever," but the injury removes a projected starter who averaged 16.5 points and 7.2 rebounds as a Syracuse sophomore.
- Florida held the No. 1 spot, projected to return six of its top seven scorers — Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon, Boogie Fland, Rueben Chinyelu, Urban Klavzar, and Isaiah Brown — from a team that won the SEC by three games and was a No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed.
- Michigan fell from No. 3 to No. 8, the only other ranking change, after coach Dusty May departed for the Dallas Mavericks on the eve of the NBA Draft.
- Illinois was the rankings' biggest mover, climbing one spot to No. 3 on the strength of a 2026 Final Four run and six returning top-nine scorers.
- Boynton will now coach a preseason top-10 Michigan team less than three years after being fired at Oklahoma State, the author notes as a silver lining to the Wolverines' drop.
Why it matters: St. John's loses a projected starting forward before the season begins, lowering its preseason ceiling in the Big East. Michigan's five-spot fall shows how a single NBA coaching departure can crater a national champion's standing — yet the program still lands in the top 10 under a coach recently fired from Oklahoma State.
