Torrence Watson, a 6-foot-5 shooting guard out of St. Louis, Missouri, played three seasons for the Tigers but was seemingly not a household name. Cuonzo Martin liked his talents as a freshman and even started Watson four times while playing him roughly 23 minutes a game. But, instead of gaining an even larger role through the years, Watson’s production and playing time went down each year at Mizzou causing him to transfer following last season.
The new Elon Phoenix guard is seeing 27 minutes a night and finally getting his chance. He is currently averaging 10.7 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 1.5 assists a game. The question lies should Cuonzo have given him more minutes before he transferred? And, the simple answer is no. Watson is an athletic guard who really can space the floor well for a team; however, he has proven that he is inefficient shooting the ball and that doesn’t stop him from being a shot chucker.
Torrence this season is shooting 34.6% from the field and 31% from three. These splits are not on limited attempts either. Watson gets up eight shots from the field a night with five of them being 3-pointers. This poor shooting is something that has been rather consistent for Watson over his collegiate career and is probably a reason Cuonzo did not play him much. The Tigers this season are struggling from beyond the arc but adding another inefficient shooter back to the mix would not help the team.
One aspect of Watson’s game that has been impressive this season is his ability to get to the free throw line. Watson gets to the line in most games and has three games with eight or more free throw attempts. Despite his poor shooting splits, Watson is actually shooting 87% from the line this season. Another interesting thing to note about his time so far at Elon is the ability for the man to get hot. Versus High Point back on December 4, 2021, Watson exploded for 34 points, something Tiger fans would be going crazy about.
Overall, Watson is not an efficient player and would not be helping the Tigers if he stuck around and did not transfer.