Battin in Portal. Buh-bye.

[DieHardUtahUtesFan]

Report: Utah forward Riley Battin entering portal as a grad transfer – Deseret

[Tony (admin)]

I wanted to like him. 

[chinngiskhaan]

I don’t think I remember him ever attempting to block a shot. His entire strategy is to stand in front of his man, and fall over when he gets bumped.

[DieHardUtahUtesFan]

I want to like every Runnin’ Ute. But they have to give us something to like, and what has there been to like in the last six years?

[PhiladelphiaUte]

…and this isn’t the first time he’d done this either.  It’s one thing to go into the portal.  But to do it TWICE?  Is Battin some sort of high maintenance prima donna?  Is he just not a “team player”?  Certainly no sense of loyalty.

Perhaps it wasn’t Larry who was responsible for running off players after all.  Last year, I’d said it was time to cleanse the program of all scholarship players — including the ones not looking to jump into the portal, but folks on this site rebuked me saying, “Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater”.  But every year, we see more than our fair share of players opting to leave.  This seems like a “bad/toxic culture” thing going on in our locker room, that infects everyone who enters.  Utah needs an entirely new team, and what better time to do this than now?  We already suck anyway.

[chinngiskhaan]

Battin is one very bad player. Let’s not start complaining about transfers out just yet.

[utefansince79]

He was honored on senior night so no chance at all he was going to return.  Happy to see he has apparently earned a degree as he is unlikely to make a living playing hoops in the long run.  Seemed to be a promising player as a freshman but never really developed.

As with most any departing Ute I wish him well in his future endeavors.

 

[Staples]

This isn’t fair to Battin at all. I think he put his name in the portal the first time simply to keep his options open with the coaching change AND he came back and gave Coach Smith a chance. For a myriad of reasons it didn’t work out (mostly talent related, he did seem to try hard) and his minutes dwindled as the season progressed. He could see the writing on the wall just as easily as the rest of us could and if he can find a mid-major program where he can perhaps contribute a little bit more, I wish him the best of luck.

[D T]

No surprise here & although I’m grateful for his efforts, it’s high time for him to move on…..We need a serious upgrade in talent & he wasn’t among the handful constituting our core.

Good luck to him.