NORMAL, Ill. – Illinois State head men's basketball coach Dan Muller has announced that former Junior College All-American point guard Ricky Torres has signed to play for the Redbirds starting in the 2019-20 season.
"I'm so excited to add Ricky to our program," said Muller. "He's a special young man who is mature beyond his years. Ricky is a physical and talented point guard that brings experience, toughness, skill and leadership to our team next year. He was extremely well coached last year under Gregg Marshall and is ready to help lead our team immediately."
At Wichita State last season, he played in all 37 games during the year with 10 starts. He dished out 90 assists – third-most on the team – against just 37 turnovers for a 2.4-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio in over 15 minutes per game. He had a season-high eight assists (with no turnovers) at Memphis on Jan. 3 and dished out seven assists at Tulsa on Feb. 20. He scored a season-high 13 points on Dec. 19 against Oral Roberts while also dishing out six assists in the game.
The 6-3 guard was named a first team All-American by the NJCAA following the 2017-18 season in which he averaged 17.2 points, 4.7 rebounds, 8.1 assists and 1.7 steals per game for Missouri State University-West Plaines. He shot 49.9 percent from the field, 43.3 percent from three-point range, and 69.7 percent from the charity stripe.
His 268 assists as a sophomore not only set a Missouri-West Plaines school record but was the second-highest total in NJCAA that season. He also set school record for career assists (427) and single-game assists (16).
His second year with the Grizzlies he scored in double-figures 31 times, including 11 games of 20 or more points, and two 31-point contests. He also had 11 games in which he dished out double-figure assists, as all 11 were points-assists double-doubles. His school-record total of 16 came on Feb. 7 at Moberly Area.
As a freshman he averaged 11.2 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 5.7 assists per game. He had 15 games in which he scored in double-figures, and had two double-figure assist games, including a 17-point, 10-assist double-double on Jan. 6 against Sunrise Academy.
Torres joins an incoming group of newcomers that includes fall signee D.J. Horne and recent NLI signees Harouna Sissoko and Antonio Reeves. The Redbirds will also have five others – senior Jaycee Hillsman, juniors Keith Fisher III and Lijah Donnelly, sophomore Dedric Boyd, and freshman Abdou Ndiaye – all eligible to play this season after sitting out last season.
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