Inside The Huskies

Going Battie: UW Reaches Out to Little-Used Owls Player

The 6-foot-8 freshman forward started just once for the Owls in 20 appearances.
Dan Raley|
Dillon Battie takes a promotion photo at Temple.
Dillon Battie takes a promotion photo at Temple. | Temple

The University of Washington basketball team has been in contact with former Temple forward Dillon Battie in the transfer portal, according to 247Sports, a somewhat unusual connection because of their respective circumstances.

Odd because the Huskies are in need of a host of veteran players rather than projects following their last-place finish (13-18 overall, 4-16 conference) in their Big Ten debut season.

Originally from Dallas, the 6-foot-8, 210-pound Battie appeared in 20 games and started just once as a freshman this past winter for Temple's 17-15 team.

A high-percentage shooter, he connected at an impressive 68.3 clip, but he doesn't rely on 3-pointers much at all, taking just 5 of them and making one.

He scored in double figures just once, putting up 16 against Monmouth in his second Owls game, and opened only against South Florida, with his start coming in his 16th outing.

While he might have a lot of upside for an established team, Danny Sprinkle and his staff are more likely to sign a half-dozen veterans or so to go with four incoming recruits and four returnees led by guard Zoom Diallo, also coming off his freshman season.

In his limited play forTemple, Battie averaged a rather modest 3.5 points and 1.8 rebounds per game, while pulling 7.7 minutes an outing.

After having 10 players leave the roster for eligibility or transfer reasons, the UW likely needs to start getting commitments from players fairly soon because of the large number of newcomers it is seeking for the second consecutive year.

The Huskies already have lost out on former Iowa point guard Brock Harding to TCU after he had made them one of his final three choices.

Lathan Sommerville, formerly of Rutgers and a 6-foot-10, 260-pound freshman, reportedly is visiting Montlake this weekend.

To get the latest football and basketball news on Washington Huskies on SI, go to si.com/college/washington

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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