Another former Syracuse basketball standout is returning to join the new coaching staff

Six years after his great Orange playing career, Tyus Battle is joining Gerry McNamara's expanded staff as the director of player development.

Mar 20, 2019; Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Syracuse Orange guard Tyus Battle during a press conference before the first round of the 2019 NCAA Tournament at Vivint Smart Home Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

At this rate the Dome and road arenas will have to install plenty more seats on the SU bench for the upcoming season.

Wednesday's announcement from the university of Battle coming aboard in a newly created position, increases the number to 11 coaches/staff, and counting (it seems), that will be working with G-Mac to help this year's players on and off the court, with the common goal of a return to the NCAA Tournament as quickly as possible.

Cuse players will be learning from someone in their (Nike) shoes, only a short time removed

Hard to believe it has already been a decade since Battle first put on a Syracue uniform for Jim Boeheim in the 2016-17 season.

A natural leader as a player, Battle was a two-time team captain, and a double-digit scorer all four years at SU, and helped lead the 2019 squad to the NCAA Sweet 16 (photo above) in Omaha where SU fell to Duke.

Battle impressively finished his career as the 18th leading scorer in school history (1,647 points), starting all but nine games (94-out-of-103). We will also always remember his game-winning corner jumper as a freshman in a fun win at Clemson.

Even before his 'Cuse playing days, Battle also had top international experience on the USA Under-17 team that won the gold medal at the 2014 FIBA World Championship.

Following a short professional career in the G-League and globally for a couple of seasons, Battle returned to his native New Jersey to begin his post-playing coaching career as an assistant at a couple of N.J. prep schools and the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League.

The ratio of coaches to players keeps shrinking, and that's a major development

The impressive plan that McNamara put together to build out his staff certainly won over Mike Haynie, John Wildhack and Bryan Blair, not to mention the booster network.

In a short time frame since the new administration and McNamara have been hired (just about two and a half months), much has come together to put an increased budget in place to fund both the necessary coaching/support staff and resources to compete as a consistently-ranked Top 25 program, and fund a roster capable of winning big games.

Battle, becomes the 13th member of the program's staff (14 total) that will be involved at all home/away games.

He will serve in a hybrid role, able to work with players in small groups and individually developing better basketball skills. After all, Battle led the Orange in free throw shooting as a sophomore (84%) and junior (76%), and SU shot just 65% at the FT line as a team last season-fourth worst in the NCAA.

Battle and Ryan Blackwell, the program's new Director of Player Engagement, will also be able to use their Orange and professional experiences to help the players in life-skills development both during their remaining time on campus and beyond.

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