Temple guard transfer Khalif Battle wrapped up his official visit to Arkansas on Saturday morning and left impressed with coach Eric Musselman, the staff and family atmosphere.
Battle, 6-5 and 175 pounds, previously visited Central Florida. He began his visit to Arkansas on Thursday.
“It went real well," he said. "Arkansas and Fayetteville has embraced me a lot, just from me asking people about the school and what they think of Coach Muss, and everybody had good things to say. Coach has really developed players and got players to the next level.”
Battle was a pre-season second-team All-American Athletic Conference selection and averaged a team leading 17.9 points a game and 3.6 rebounds. He started 8 of 27 games and averaged 32.2 minutes per contest.
Battle shot 41% from the field, 35% from three-point range and 89.8% at the free-throw line in 27 games. His 77 three-pointers were second best on the team. He had a season-high 27 points against SMU.
He left the team for personal reasons Feb. 16.
The facilities and the first dinner with the staff were highlights of the trip to Arkansas.
“Seeing the facilities and meeting the coaching staff are really things that highlighted it, and then going out to eat,” Battle said. “When I was looking at a coaching staff, I was looking at a family atmosphere and it felt like I’ve known these guys for a long time.”
He played in 24 games in a covid-19 shortened season as a freshman in 2019-20 at Butler, where he shot 33% from the field and 30% beyond the three-point line before transferring to Temple.
ESPN rated him a 4-star prospect, the No. 15 shooting guard and No. 4 recruit in New Jersey in 2019. He and Arkansas’ other official visitor the last three days, Virginia Commonwealth forward Jamir Watkins, were teammates at Trenton (N.J.) Catholic School.
Battle signed with Butler over offers from Connecticut, Rutgers, Miami, Syracuse, Washington and other schools. He is expected to graduate in May and has two seasons of eligibility remaining.
Battle said he was familiar with the tradition at Arkansas, so his focus was on the people around the program.
“They showed me how they are as people and they’re good people, it seems like,” Battle said.
On3.com rates him the No. 12 player in the NCAA transfer portal. He plans to make a decision about his next school Monday.