LAS VEGAS \u2013 During his sixth and final college season, Khalif Battle checked many of the boxes that eluded the guard at three previous stops.<\/p>\n
At Gonzaga, Battle won more than 25 games for the first time in his career, captured a conference tournament title after coming up short in the Big East, AAC and SEC, and punched a ticket to the NCAA Tournament after missing the postseason five straight years at Butler, Temple and Arkansas.<\/p>\n
Battle flipped many of the narratives surrounding his career, experienced personal growth and got everything he was looking for during a short but sweet tenure at Gonzaga.<\/p>\n
Well, mostly.<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t appear on either of the WCC\u2019s postseason teams and, despite the fact his name didn\u2019t show up in the majority of mock drafts, Battle refuses to let 30 NBA teams off the hook for not using a first- or second-round pick on him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m used to my name not being called,\u201d Battle said. \u201cI feel like I should\u2019ve won first team WCC. In years past, in other conferences. I\u2019m always outworking to make it farther than anybody else, so my path has always been different. I\u2019m just a junkyard dog, so whatever I have to do to get there, that\u2019s what I\u2019m going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Battle\u2019s college career was more unorthodox than most and he expects the path to a roster spot in the NBA won\u2019t be much different. Roughly one month after a short stint with the Phoenix Suns at Summer League, Battle signed his first professional contract with Aquila Basket Trento, a club playing in Italy\u2019s top basketball league.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know I\u2019m going to play in the NBA someday,\u201d Battle said. \u201cIt might be longer than the usual for what it is right now, but I\u2019ll be there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Battle got a good feel for NBA speed, length and athleticism during a short at Summer League in Las Vegas \u2013 a setting where the guard was forced to adapt to a different role, take fewer shots and focus on impacting the game in other ways.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody keeps talking about how I can score already, so now it\u2019s just defense,\u201d Battle said. \u201cI\u2019ve been picking up full court, not really worried about shooting. Everything coach (Mark) Few kind of prepared me for, less shots. I knew going to Gonzaga, I wasn\u2019t going to get as much shots as I would at any other program, the previous stops. So I went there to strictly just guard and get ready for this moment. So now it\u2019s here and I think I\u2019m ready for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
DeMarre Carroll, the former NBA veteran who works on Phoenix\u2019s staff and coached the team at Summer League, didn\u2019t begin with Battle\u2019s scoring ability when asked to evaluate the guard and what he could add to the Suns in Vegas.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe can guard, I know that\u2019s one thing,\u201d Carroll said. \u201cPicking up full court and guarding, that\u2019s something he does very well and we need him to do more of. Obviously playing downhill with a force, getting to the rim. I think Khalif\u2019s just got to continue to keep growing, man. Continue to keep taking his bumps and bruises. This league is hard, it\u2019s hard to try to get on a roster but I think he\u2019s headed in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Battle boiled his job at Summer League down to doing \u201cthe dirty work,\u201d recognizing most players in his position don\u2019t crack NBA rosters by scoring, but making the right play, avoiding mistakes and providing consistent effort on defense.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to do the little things,\u201d Battle said. \u201cSo my job isn\u2019t to score, my job is to interrupt the defensive end and make the main guys\u2019 job easier until I\u2019m one of those guys shooting the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Battle collected four jerseys and made countless connections during a journeyman college career. That made Summer League a unique and friendly setting for the guard, who ran into three teammates from last year\u2019s Gonzaga roster \u2013 Ryan Nembhard, Nolan Hickman and Ben Gregg \u2013 and crossed paths with other friends, teammates and training partners throughout his time in Vegas.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know everybody from every single team,\u201d Battle said, possibly only exaggerating a little. \u201c\u2026 They\u2019re all texting me watching my games and showing up to the games or I\u2019ll see them in the hotel passing, so it\u2019s been good.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old Battle passed up opportunities from other high-major programs offering bigger roles to play for Few and Gonzaga. Battle\u2019s season, full of personal ups and downs, was emblematic of Gonzaga\u2019s.<\/p>\n
The Zags picked up a few solid wins early against Baylor and San Diego State before losing the remainder of their Quad 1 opportunities in nonconference play. Battle found his groove when Gonzaga did and the guard averaged 19 points per game in the WCC and NCAA Tournament, guiding the Zags to conference tournament wins over San Francisco and Saint Mary\u2019s before erupting for 24 points in his March Madness debut against Georgia.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had adversity and we overcame it,\u201d Battle said. \u201cI think that speaks volumes to who we are as individuals and the type of program Gonzaga is. No matter win, lose or draw, we always make the best out of our situation. I think we did that this year and I\u2019m just thankful for the opportunity coach Few gave me and the rest of the guys in Spokane.\u201d<\/p>\n
Battle said he still communicates with Few via text message about twice a week and communicates with his teammates and other staff members on a daily basis.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re all just telling me to be myself, be a dog,\u201d Battle said. \u201cThat\u2019s what all the guys around here call me, a dog.\u201d<\/p>\n
The guard believes Gonzaga has a high ceiling in 2025-26 and says the team will have an advantage given that Few was around for summer workouts, practices and meetings after Team USA obligations kept him away from Spokane the last two offseasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh it\u2019s special. I\u2019m never going to count the Zags out, ever. I\u2019m a Zag,\u201d Battle said. \u201cI\u2019m hearing a lot of feedback, those guys will text me every single day about how great practice has been. Then they\u2019ve got coach Few this summer, which is a big difference. We didn\u2019t have him last summer because he was with Team USA, so I think they\u2019re going to be great this year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2013 During his sixth and final college season, Khalif Battle checked many of the boxes that…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":205987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[1339,1317,1337,1338,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-205986","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-basketball","11":"tag-ncaabasketball","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115159534459788070","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}