Blue White Illustrated

I know there's a lot to learn before I start doing all that. I'm excited to get into that part of it. BWI Is the confidence you always played with carrying over to this new experience? BATTLE It's different. As a player, I played my whole life and I built that confidence, and that confidence was just a testament to the work I put in and it just kind of carried over. It wasn't an accident. Being a coach is new. I'm excited. I can sit here and tell you how grateful and excited and happy I am to be back, but the part I left out is how nervous I am on the other end because there's so much for me to learn. When you start something new, there's a pe- riod of learning, getting more familiar with the staff and the players. So I am nervous, but I'm excited at the same time. I'm just trying to enjoy the process, learn as much as I can. Before you lead, you've got to follow first, so I'm just following these guys, their lead- ership, and learning. And then obvi- ously, hopefully as time progresses, I can get more and more confident in every- thing that I do. But at the same time, there's going to be a little part where it's just a little nervous and new, and that's kind of where I'm at right now. BWI The way your career played out with the NIT title and the down year to follow before the NCAA appearance, do you feel like that experience will be an asset to this specific team? BATTLE Absolutely. That year after we won the NIT was not fun for anyone. But to then bounce back and respond the way we did was great. Last year was such a great year, and now Penn State is on the map. Having such a great year, now everyone knows who Penn State is. Over the past few years, Coach is doing a great job, so there's a lot that comes with that. We need to work harder, smarter. Everyone needs to continue to develop to have another season like last year. But to be there, how fun was that, Jamari [Wheeler]? How fun was that, John [Harrar], to be top 10 in the country? They earned that, and that's what we want to do this year, just work our tails off and earn that and give us an oppor- tunity to get into the dance when the time comes. ■ On the same day the Big Ten an- nounced that it was resuming prepa- rations for a fall football season, the NCAA revealed plans that could allow the Division I men's and women's bas- ketball seasons to begin in November. In its Sept. 16 announcement, the NCAA said that the upcoming season for both men's and women's hoops will begin on Nov. 25. There will not be any exhibitions or closed scrimmages before that start date. "The new season start date near the Thanksgiving holiday provides the op- timal opportunity to successfully launch the basketball season," said Dan Gavitt, the NCAA's senior vice president of basketball. "It is a grand compromise of sorts and a unified ap- proach that focuses on the health and safety of student-athletes competing towards the 2021 Division I Basketball Championships." In addition to the new start date, a number of other changes will mark the 2020-21 season: • Teams will be permitted to sched- ule as many as 27 regular-season games, and that slate may include one multiple-team tournament. • Teams will need to complete at least 13 games to be considered for their respective NCAA tournaments. Additionally, the NCAA has recom- mended that teams play at least four nonconference games. • Preseason practice is permitted to start Oct. 14. Teams will be allowed to conduct 30 practices over the next 42 days. Player participation is to max out at 20 hours per week, and no more than four hours per day, with at least one off day from team activities per week. • A ramping-up period began on Sept. 21 and will continue through Oct. 13, during which 12 hours of team activities are permitted per week, in- cluding a maximum of eight hours for skill instruction, with at least two days off per week. –N.B. NCAA approves late-November start for basketball seasons PARTING SHOT Battle led PSU to its most re- cent NCAA tour- nament appearance in 2011. Photo by Mark Selders/ Penn State Ath- letics

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