Ricky Torres to Illinois State

by **Birdfan2018** » May 18th, 2019, 11:25 am

Ricky Torres transferring from Wichita State to Illinois State with one year of eligibility.

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by **BEARZ77** » May 18th, 2019, 1:25 pm

Birdfan2018 wrote:Ricky Torres transferring from Wichita State to Illinois State with one year of eligibility.

Interesting, will he have to sit this year, would seem so? Bears were pretty interested in Ricky last year and then he signed with WSU.We kind of eyed him as an opportunity to get a better recruiting relationship with Missouri State W.P. , but he went with WSU. He had a really rough year at Wichita, he was smaller than they thought, shot the trey atrociously, but did handle and distribute ok. His stats at MSWP were really good, but it didn't translate last year.

by **tribecalledquest** » May 20th, 2019, 9:01 am

BEARZ77 wrote:
Birdfan2018 wrote:Ricky Torres transferring from Wichita State to Illinois State with one year of eligibility.

Interesting, will he have to sit this year, would seem so? Bears were pretty interested in Ricky last year and then he signed with WSU.We kind of eyed him as an opportunity to get a better recruiting relationship with Missouri State W.P. , but he went with WSU. He had a really rough year at Wichita, he was smaller than they thought, shot the trey atrociously, but did handle and distribute ok. His stats at MSWP were really good, but it didn't translate last year.

I think he will be better in the MVC where the athleticism isn't the same as the American.

by **Birdfan2018** » May 20th, 2019, 2:25 pm

tribecalledquest wrote:
BEARZ77 wrote:
Birdfan2018 wrote:Ricky Torres transferring from Wichita State to Illinois State with one year of eligibility.

Interesting, will he have to sit this year, would seem so? Bears were pretty interested in Ricky last year and then he signed with WSU.We kind of eyed him as an opportunity to get a better recruiting relationship with Missouri State W.P. , but he went with WSU. He had a really rough year at Wichita, he was smaller than they thought, shot the trey atrociously, but did handle and distribute ok. His stats at MSWP were really good, but it didn't translate last year.

I think he will be better in the MVC where the athleticism isn't the same as the American.

Also not uncommon for a JUCO to have a much more productive Senior year over their Junior year. sometimes takes the Junior year to adjust to DI ball. Tyler Brown and Daishon Knight had outstanding senior years at Illinois State. Hope Ricky is eligible and ready to have an outstanding season as the Redbirds starting PG in 2019-20

by **LanceShock** » June 18th, 2019, 11:48 am

Just saw that Ricky Torres got a waiver to play this coming season.

by **BEARZ77** » June 18th, 2019, 4:40 pm

LanceShock wrote:Just saw that Ricky Torres got a waiver to play this coming season.

While that's good news for the Redbirds and Ricky, it's just totally ridiculous on how the NCAA is determining who gets a waiver and who doesn't. I mean here's clearly a kid who didn't play well, got recruited over and looked for a landing spot. The Valley had kids last year who had already sat a year who got denied a waiver, or look at Drew Smith and Tyrik Dixon who actually both had coaching changes as part of their decision to transfer and had to sit last year. Again, good news in some ways but the NCAA is pathetic.

by **LanceShock** » June 18th, 2019, 5:28 pm

The beat writer for the Shockers said Marshall had told him earlier this year that he would do what he could to help Torres. I think the way the NCAA is doing things now, it is largely up to whether your former coach objects to a waiver or is in favor of it.

by **BEARZ77** » June 19th, 2019, 7:39 am

LanceShock wrote:The beat writer for the Shockers said Marshall had told him earlier this year that he would do what he could to help Torres. I think the way the NCAA is doing things now, it is largely up to whether your former coach objects to a waiver or is in favor of it.

Unfortunately that has zero to do with the rules; another factor appears to be anyone who hires a high priced lawyer as we have seen with multiple football quarterbacks this year gets one to.

by **Cdizzle** » August 20th, 2019, 10:57 am

As mentioned upthread, getting a waiver seems to have a lot to do with whether the school you are leaving wants you to get a waiver or not. In this case, Torres was essentially recruited over and WSU/Marshall were all about Torres getting to play this year.

Some fan analysis on Torres (was going to post on the redbird site, but don't have a login after the site got wiped):

He's good as a pure PG. Has tremendous vision and can make the pass when he sees it. Can move the team and the defense to create opportunities. He had the best vision and was the best true PG on the WSU squad last season.

The 3pt shooting thing was just weird. He may not be a sharpshooter, but his stats prior to WSU certainly indicated he would at least be serviceable. Frankly, I think it was pretty much a case of the yips. He lost his shot, and he didn't find it before the season ended. It's not like he shot it a lot better in pregame warm-ups and the like. It's like there was a mental block screwing up his mechanics and it was b-r-o-k-e.

His defense was below average, which didn't help him get the minutes needed to find his shot again. It's possible the defense would have improved late in the year as it often does with 1st year JuCo guys, but by then he was pretty buried on the bench and the freshmen had passed him. His size and athleticism levels didn't really allow him much wiggle room defensively and he was a pretty significant liability there.

As a PG, I think you gotta run the team, you gotta play defense, and you gotta hit the 3-ball at a respectable clip. 2 outta 3 is probably good for at least backup roll. He was a B+ at running the offense, a D+ at playing defense and an F at shooting. Having said that, I would have been OK keeping him. I feel like there's a reasonable chance he gets over the yips and shoots 36% from 3 this year and then you've got at least a serviceable backup. WSU was able to sign a guy with a higher ceiling, so they did.

I think he's a good get for ISUr. The defensive liability will be reduced some playing against guys closer to his athleticism level more frequently. If he gets over the yips, I think he could be a starter on a good team. It's certainly a gamble worth taking if you don't have to spend 2 scholarship years on him for 1 playing year. My best guess is that he has a great year and everyone thinks Marshall is an idiot for moving on. My other best guess is that it works out best for everyone involved, including Torres/ISUr/Marshall/Muller/newWSUrecruit.

It's nice to see Marshall playing nice with Muller. Marshall made comments that he would help Torres gain eligibility wherever he went. This is pretty common with the last guy or 2 on the bench that are occasionally recruited over. That practice can be frowned upon, but I think a lot of times it really is a mutual decision. Post-season evals often include discussions such as "where you're at right now, you're probably the 4th string PG that's going to see 4 minutes per game next season." That's just honest. Nothing wrong with the player wanting more than that somewhere else and nothing wrong with a coach wanting to try to upgrade the talent at the position.

Best of luck to Torres. He was dirty in the pickle-roll. Even after teams knew he couldn't shoot. I'm convinced he's the reason one of our bigs went from 2 minutes/gm and likely transferring to potential starter on a top 50 team.

by **Red** » August 22nd, 2019, 10:50 am

Cdizzle wrote:Best of luck to Torres. He was dirty in the pickle-roll. Even after teams knew he couldn't shoot. I'm convinced he's the reason one of our bigs went from 2 minutes/gm and likely transferring to potential starter on a top 50 team.

Who? Which team?