Torrence leaving MU
For the third straight season, a Marquette men's basketball assistant coach is leaving to take over his own program.
Associate head coach Dwayne Killings is set to be hired as head coach at Albany, several sources confirmed Monday.
Former MU assistant Stan Johnson just finished his first season in charge of Loyola Marymount. Brett Nelson, another former staff member under Golden Eagles head coach Steve Wojciechowski, has been head coach of Holy Cross for two seasons.
Killings was hired by MU in April 2018 to replace Chris Carrawell, who joined the Duke coaching staff.
Killings quickly proved to be an asset on the MU bench and also an ace recruiter, helping land top-100 prospects like Symir Torrence and Justin Lewis.
The 39-year-old Killings and fellow MU associate head coach Justin Gainey also helped form "Coaches For Action," a group of Black assistant coaches at Big East schools who pushed for social action.
Albany agreed to part ways with head coach Will Brown earlier this month. Brown was 315-295 in 20 seasons with the Great Danes.
Sophomore guard Torrence announced on social media on Tuesday that he is leaving Marquette.
He is expected to enter the transfer portal.
The 6-foot-3 Torrence committed to MU in January 2019 to be part of the 2020 recruiting class. But he reclassified in the summer to join the Golden Eagles for the 2019-20 season.
As a freshman, Torrence showed flashes as a pass-first point guard. He appeared in 28 games and averaged 1.8 points and 1.6 assists per game.
Torrence was expected to play a bigger role as a sophomore. He started the first three games before sophomore guard D.J. Carton took his spot. Torrence also missed three games with a toe injury. He really struggled with his shot, going 5 for 36 (13.9%) on threepointers. Torrence is a Syracuse, New York, native. His primary recruiter at MU was Killings. Before committing to MU, Torrence took official visits to Butler and Cincinnati.