In 2011, coach Steve Fisher and his San Diego State staff recruited a 6-foot-8 forward who had been cut from his high school team and resurrected his career at a junior college in Santa Monica.
Small world.
Fifteen years later, Deshawn Stephens helped the Aztecs land one of Italy’s rising stars.
On Monday, 6-foot-2 David Torresani became the fifth player — and second European pro — to commit to the Aztecs as they re-stock a roster ravaged by transfer portal defections. Torresani plays for Nutribullet Treviso, a first-division Italian club that started the season with a 36-year-old forward named Deshawn Stephens. He also played against another former Aztecs, center Skylar Spencer at Udine.
“They both thought he’s very good with high, high upside,” coach Brian Dutcher said. “It’s nice to have guys who watched him, who played with him and against him, who know what kind of player he is. I think he’s a really good get for us.”
Torresani, the son of a former player and referee, started in the Olimpia Milano youth system before joining Treviso at 17 and has steadily improved to where he is regarded as one of Italy’s top young prospects. He’s athletic (a 38-inch vertical jump), has a quick first step, shoots 37.8% on 3s, is a committed on-ball defender and can play both the point and off-guard positions. He speaks English, Italian, French and German.
“David is super athletic, he’s super fast,” Dutcher said. “I wanted to add a guy with some burst. He’s versatile, he’s a true combo who can play the 1 or the 2, he shoots it at a high level, he’s explosive going to the basket, and I just felt he guarded hard. He’s not afraid to answer the challenge defensively for 94 feet.”
Torresani — he pronounces his first name Dah-veed — considered entering the NBA Draft last summer or playing U.S. college ball before ultimately returning for the final year of his contract at Treviso, where he is averaging 7.0 points in 18 minutes per game off the bench on a veteran team in one of Europe’s top leagues. All five starters are in their 30s; the next youngest player in the rotation is 26.
He had 20 points on 3-of-4 shooting behind the arc against Sassari in December and was recently named one of the league’s top players under 22 (he turns 21 on June 5). He also averaged 10.4 points, 3.4 assists and 1.9 rebounds per game for Italy’s under-20 national team, which was coached by Treviso’s Alessandro Rossi.
After the Italian U20s won the European championship last July with a multiracial roster, Torresani drew national attention by speaking out against racist taunts directed at the team on social media.
“I remember when the National Team’s socials published our team photo before the Euros: There were lots of racist, mocking, and derogatory comments aimed at me and my teammates,” Torresani, whose mother is from the African nation of Benin, wrote in an Instagram post in Italian. “Some of us were pretty upset about it, but overall, it was something that gave us an extra motivation to win the games.
“Often, the profiles of those who write that kind of garbage are fake profiles, or at least with fake names and photos. I wonder why so many of them don’t show their faces. Probably because they’re cowards. Regardless of everything, this climate on social media didn’t ruin the atmosphere at all.”
San Diego State has added Italy’s David Torresani to its men’s basketball roster for the 2026-27 season. (FIBA basketball)
Torresani becomes the latest exponent of a recruiting shift for coach Brian Dutcher and his staff, from almost exclusively Southern California high school prospects to bounce-back transfers to a more national focus to now casting their net overseas.
Last week, they finalized the commitment of 6-9 Luka Skoric, a 23-year-old Croatian pro from KK Cibona whom Kansas, Pitt and West Virginia had been pursuing a year ago. And there are indications that the Aztecs might not be finished, also believed to be targeting a European post.
“They’re letting these guys come over and play,” Dutcher said. “You look at Illinois’ roster, you look at Arizona’s roster, they’re dominated by European players. These are teams that are playing for national championships. We’ve always had international players but they’ve always been over here (for high school). It was time for us to go over and take them firsthand and be the one to bring them over here.
“These are not adding freshmen. These are adding veteran players who have played a lot of quality basketball.”
Torresani grows the current roster to 10, with four returnees, incoming freshman Zach White; three domestic transfers in Jeremiah “Bear” Cherry, Nick Anderson and Chance Gladden; and now two European pros.
Dutcher has said they’re “getting close” on a European big, which would get them to 11 of their allotted 13 scholarship spots. Those last two might not be filled until later.
“There are going to be a ton of guys left in the portal late who are going to be looking for opportunity,” Dutcher said last week. “Right now, the good ones are looking for money and opportunity. In a month or so, they’re just going to be looking for opportunity, the ones who are left in there.
“We’ll try to find pieces who just want the opportunity to get better in our program.”