Syracuse native Symir Torrence transfers to Orange men’s basketball from Marquette

With the Syracuse Orange men’s basketball roster going through a serious upheaval process, Jim Boeheim and his staff needed to bring some transfers in to fill out the rotation. The first of the Orange newcomers was revealed today as Syracuse native Symir Torrence announced his transfer to SU from Marquette.

A native of the Salt City, Torrence started his high school career at the Syracuse Science Academy before moving to Vermont Academy. He was scheduled to be in the class of 2020 but reclassified to 2019 to join Marquette a year early. Over two seasons, Torrence played in 52 games for the Golden Eagles but only started three contests, all at the beginning of the 2020-21 season. He averaged just over two points a game with 1.6 assists and 1.3 rebounds per game in his Marquette career.

A lot remains to be seen, but on paper, Torrence doesn’t seem like a direct replacement for the loss of Kadary Richmond through the transfer portal. At 6-foot-3, Torrence doesn’t offer the same length that Richmond did at the top of the zone and the offensive numbers aren’t close to what Richmond averaged last year for the Orange. Nevertheless, Torrence will most likely slot in as a much-needed backup guard to prevent Buddy Boeheim and Joe Girard from playing close to 40 minutes during every Syracuse game.

Torrence is just the first of many expected transfers to come to the Orange program. Syracuse still needs to find replacements for John Bol Ajak and Robert Braswell, who entered their names into the transfer portal earlier this week. Quincy Guerrier may also leave Syracuse as he is reportedly testing out the NBA Draft waters. Jim Boeheim is expecting more players to leave the program as well, so Torrence is just one of many new Orange faces that fans will hopefully see in-person this coming fall.