The Arkansas transfer is the real deal. His electrifying style of play has brought excitement and thrilling speculation as to how he’ll fit in.
As the Gonzaga Bulldogs stand now on the precipice of what is possibly their most promising season in program history, it’s easy for some fans to forget that for a while during the 2023-2024 season, the Gonzaga Bulldogs were just plain bad. Not “bad” by college basketball standards, but bad by Gonzaga basketball standards. Historically bad. Over the course of a few weeks last winter, the Bulldogs lost 4 games, including a real dud to Sana Clara, and fell out of the AP Top 25 Coaches Poll for the first time since 2016. It was a dark time and many a TV remote found itself lodged in living room drywall as exasperated fans watched another easy W somehow slip through the team’s fingers.
Luckily, Mark Few is a future hall of famer for a reason. The team’s dramatic turnaround in the middle of last season is perhaps the best evidence as to why.
It took a while to figure out which squeaky wheels needed what kind of grease, but when Ben Gregg entered the starting lineup in place of Dusty Stromer and more than a few minor tweaks were made to the overall look of the offense, the Zags returned to form as one of the most efficient and effective offenses in the country.
This new look came with a cost, however. With so many players learning new roles on the fly, the team’s strategy had to become a bit more simplified, variables minimized, the bench shortened, priorities realigned. The Zags found themselves running one version of the offense extremely well. By tournament time, though, the team’s lack of reliable alternatives to that look if that version of the offense were to stall hurt the Zags tremendously. In Gonzaga’s season-ending loss to Purdue, our guards looked gassed, foul trouble reared its ugly head once again, shots wouldn’t drop from the perimeter, and the Zags were painfully exposed as a team without a particularly effective Plan B in crunchtime.
Based on the offseason the Zags have had since then, it would seem Coach Few is determined to never let a team’s fragile chemistry be its Achilles heel again. The Zags of 2024-2025 represent an embarrassment of riches. It’s a testament to the integrity of this program that the Bulldogs were able to retain so many load-bearing components of last year’s Sweet 16 team while also attracting so much new talent from the transfer portal. It’s almost unheard of. The Zags have made out like bandits and are primed now to be a preseason top-5 team with more talent than minutes available.
Let the Battle Begin
In April, the extremely talented Arkansas guard Khalif Battle announced his decision to enter the transfer portal. Battle had named Gonzaga as a potential landing spot, but many fans considered this a long shot. After all, Battle spent last season as an absolute beast who tore unstoppably through the SEC, he could commit just about anywhere he wanted and get big starting minutes right off the bat. There was talk of Villanova, Kansas State, Arizona State, and TCU; all programs where Battle could play 40 minutes a game if he wanted. So when he announced his decision to commit to Gonzaga, fans felt a rush of excitement but faced a lot of questions in the comedown.
Wait, does he think he’s going to be a starter next year?
Wait, is he maybe actually going to be a starter?
What about Nolan Hickman?
Could Battle play on the wing?
What about Mihael Ajayi?
Where will his minutes come from?
What about Dusty Stromer?
What about Steele Venters?
The speculation as to how Battle will fit in with next year’s squad continues and it’s assumed he will most likely be coming off the bench to give Hickman and Nembhard (and/or Michael Ajayi) a much needed break. To have a player like Battle as a 6th man is almost enough on its own to put the Bulldogs in the conversation for best team in the nation.
What does Battle do well?
Well, Battle does everything well. He is far quicker and more athletic than just about any player the Zags have had in the last few years. He can play high above the rim and slash to the interior with finesse. He heats up quick from outside and has a hair-trigger release. When Battle’s in the zone he’s completely locked in, nearly unstoppable. He plays fast and has a penchant for barreling into the lane for an acrobatic score or a chance at free throws. What’s most exciting about Battle is that he is himself exciting. His style of play is dazzling, he feeds off the energy of the crowd and whips fans into a frenzy, he has an infectious confidence that corrals the game’s momentum in key moments. He brings not only a new set of skills to the program, but a new attitude. In Battle the Zags may have found everything they wished they had had last year.
Battle averaged 14.8 points off the bench for the Razorbacks last year and was the team’s leading scorer, an impressive feat for a 6th man who averages 25 minutes per game. There is no reason to suspect Battle couldn’t be a leading scorer for the Zags even if he’s only on the floor 20-25 mins per game. He’s done it before, after all, and against far stiffer competition than the Zags faced in conference play. Over the course of 7 games towards the end of last season Battle averaged nearly 30 points per game for the Razorbacks and dropped a casual 42 points against Missouri. For a couple months last year, Battle made a case for himself night after night as the best guard in the country even as a non-starter.
Winning the Free Throw Battle
The subject of Gonzaga’s foul differential in tournament play deserves its own dissertation-length article, but the long and short of it is that in over the last 10 years, fouls have hurt the Bulldogs more than just about any other factor during March Madness. Perhaps the most important skill Battle brings to the Bulldogs (and perhaps the craftiest move Few has made this offseason) is his ability to earn and make free throws. With Battle, the Zags have a real shot to correct the foul imbalance that’s killed them in recent years.
Over a three-game stretch last year, Battle attempted 49 free throws. He made 45 of them. He may be better than anyone in the country at getting to the charity stripe. It’s wildly rare that a player’s ability to draw fouls is even mentioned as an aspect of their style of play, let alone the most important part of their game, but Battle’s numbers speak for themselves. Last year, Battle made 52 more free throws than Graham Ike (GU’s most fouled player) even attempted. The Zags have not had a bona fide free throw specialist since Derek Raivio and Battle’s unique skills could make him an asset in big games where victory can be won from the free throw line.
Where does Battle fit in next year?
The question of exactly how much Battle will see the floor is not an easy one to answer. It’s most likely that Battle’s minutes will come from everywhere. Nolan Hickman already possesses one of the rarest gifts in college basketball: the trust of Mark Few. Ryan Nembhard possesses the second rarest gift in college basketball: competence running the point guard spot in Mark Few’s offense. Some fans balked at the idea that Battle would eat into any of Hickman or Nembhard’s minutes next year, but Nembhard also averaged the most minutes per game in the WCC; Hickman averaged the third most. It’s thrilling to consider what the duo could accomplish with fresher legs and a chance to catch their breath this year.
This means Battle will probably slot in as a combo guard / wing and give the Zags the option of a 3 guard lineup with some combination of Battle, Nembhard, Hickman, and Ajayi in the backcourt while Ike, Gregg, and/or Huff hold down the interior. Battle’s athleticism also makes him a menace in transition; it’s feasible the Bulldogs could use him like Rasir Bolton or Malachi Smith off the in-bounds for a dizzyingly fast bucket in transition before the defense has a chance to get set. If the Zags lacked a Plan B at the end of last year, this coming year’s plan B is primed to be more deadly than a vast majority of other teams’ Plan A.
Welcome to Spokane
In Battle, the Zags have found more than just depth in the backcourt and more than just a spark off the bench. They have signed one of the most electrifying players in the country and now must solve the puzzle of getting him in the right spots at the right time. There are worse problems to have. The excitement among fans has never been greater and there is perhaps no player fans are more excited to watch than Khalif Battle.
Any squad that has a player of Battle’s caliber coming off the bench is going to be deadly in ways that are impossible to game-plan for, and whether his minutes are coming from Nolan Hickman, Michael Ajayi, Ryan Nembhard, Steele Venters, Dusty Stromer, Ben Gregg, or elsewhere, he has made it clear that he came to GU to prove that he is one of the best guards in the country. Coach Few is willing to give him a chance to do so. Khalif Battle is not a “spark” off the bench. He’s an atom bomb.