Battle adding to arsenal

Jeff Rice

As Talor Battle drove hard to the basket, his defender, Tim Frazier, cut off his angle and forced him wide right. Battle squared his shoulders and, seeing Drew Jones roaming over to help Frazier, lofted a high shot over the big man's outstretched hand and into the hoop, ending Penn State’s final pickup game of the afternoon.

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As the Nittany Lions gulped down water, Jones teased Battle for sinking a lucky shot. What Battle’s teammate didn’t know was that last month, when the all-conference point guard was playing with and against some of the world’s best collegiate players at the World University Games in Belgrade, Serbia, Battle had learned to add such shots to his rapidly growing arsenal.

“It’s funny, because in practice everyday, I had Jarvis Varnado,” the 5-foot-11 Battle said, referring to one of his U.S. teammates, the 6-foot-9 pogo stick from Mississippi State. “I gotta shoot over the top of the backboard to get over that guy.”

“Last year, I would have shot that with no arc and it probably would have gotten blocked. It’s just experience. Playing with those guys raised my level and it made me a better player and hopefully me playing with them helped those guys.”

Now, it’s helping the rest of the Nittany Lions.

Gone are Jamelle Cornley and Stanley Pringle, the No. 7 and No. 11 scorers in the Big Ten last season. There are some solid supporting pieces in place but most, if not all of, Penn State’s offense this year will go through Battle, the conference’s third-leading scorer. If the scrimmages with his teammates are any indication, he’s ready to turn in an even bigger season.

Led by Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan, Team USA won its first five games of the tournament before falling by a point to Russia in the semifinal, then rebounded to defeat Israel in the bronze-medal game.

Battle, one of only two true guards on the team, led the squad in scoring (10.3 points per game) and was second only to the other guard, Villanova’s Corey Fisher, in minutes played, averaging just under 20 per game.

Then again, being on the bench at all and wondering how long he would stay in the game once he got in were substantial adjustments for the nation’s leader in minutes played (1,422 over 38 games).

“There were times when I was really frustrated,” he said. “It was something I wasn’t used to. But it was the same thing for everybody on that team. And I got out of that funk quick.”

By the end of the trip, Battle found the ball in his hands with the game on the line. And, with the exception of a 1-of-11 performance in the loss to Russia (when the U.S. blew a late 10-point lead), he delivered, shooting 48 percent from the field and 52 percent from 3-point range.

The player that returned from overseas is bigger, stronger, faster and surer with every on-court movement than the one who left.

“I just learned so much,” he said. “My feel for the game is so much different now.” An example?

“I really understand the pick-and-roll,” he said. “I always thought that maybe we would run it for me to come off and get an open look, but there’s so much more to it.”

That was the play of choice for the U.S. team in Serbia (Ryan had limited time to install his grinding motion sets) and it’s been a point of emphasis during Penn State’s unofficial pickup games. Battle has been pleased to see other Nittany Lions, particularly sophomore gunner Chris Babb, use the play to get a variety of shots.

The 21-year-old Battle has wasted no time taking Cornley’s place as the team’s verbal and emotional leader. He’s trying to get an on-court feel for true freshmen Frazier, Bill Edwards, Sasa Borovnjak and Jermaine Marshall but hasn’t been shy about offering constructive criticism to his veteran classmates, either.

So far, he said, there has been little talk among the players of the upcoming season, only the chatter of hotly contested scrimmages.

“Right now, it’s about getting better,” Battle said. “Obviously, we want to win, but we want every guy on the same page and getting the freshmen up to where they should be heading into the fall. When they get with Coach (Ed DeChellis), Coach is going to expect them to be at another level, another gear, so we’re just trying to drill that into the young guys’ heads.”

The freshmen should have a good idea of what that level looks like. Their point guard’s playing at the one just beyond it.

Jeff Rice covers Penn State men’s basketball for the Centre Daily Times. He can be reached at 231-4609 or jrice@centredaily.com.