Monday, Syracuse basketball extended a scholarship offer to a name Orange fans are already familiar with, as first reported by Pat Lawless.
Khalif Battle, a class of 2019 guard playing for Team Final (PA), has picked up offers from Syracuse and Washington.
— Pat Lawless (@PatLawless_) July 10, 2017
Khalif is the younger brother of Syracuse wing Tyus Battle and a member of the 2019 recruiting class. 247Sports has him listed as the No. 139 player in his class, which puts him at an even 100 spots lower than where the recruiting site had Tyus (of course, those rankings change over time). Khalif is a bit smaller than his brother. Tyus is 6-6, while Khalif is just 6-3. Khalif has obviously already been in contact with Syracuse coaches for a while, and Gary Battle (the boys’ father) told Syracuse.com’s Donna Ditota he already knew the Orange was going to offer Khalif. Gary expressed his “proud dad” vibes on his Twitter account.
So proud of my son Khalif for earning offers to Syracuse and UW.
— Gary Battle (@Battle9Gary) July 10, 2017
Let’s address the elephant in the room — Syracuse wasn’t the only school to offer Khalif Battle Monday. Washington, and more importantly former Orange assistant Mike Hopkins, also extended an offer to Battle. The Battle family is fond of Hopkins. In an interview with ESPN after his commitment, Tyus said the then-planned transition from Jim Boeheim to Mike Hopkins as SU’s head coach played a factor in his decision, saying he was “very comfortable and confident with Coach Hop.” Of course, there’s no predicting how much of that confidence transfers over to Khalif.
Battle also has offers from Rutgers and St. Jospeh’s, but more will start pouring in as time goes on (remember, he still has two full high school seasons to play). Syracuse is wisely getting its foot in the door easily in a recruitment that shouldn’t require many resources to keep pace. The Orange already has a man on the inside in one of its players, and the younger Battle is already familiar with the Cuse facilities, coaches, players and campus.
Khalif hasn’t hinted at any sort of timetable for a decision, as there’s still plenty of recruiting to be done before that time comes. If Vegas gave early odds on these things, though, you’d have to assume Syracuse would be the favorite.
Posted: Nathan Dickinson
