Mar. 29—WICHITA, Kan. — Sitting at a locker at Intrust Bank Arena, Gonzaga guard Khalif Battle held an iPhone in his right hand. Resting beneath the mobile device was an NCAA name placard taken from the news conference from which Battle had just returned.
Before long, the guard was stripping the walls of Gonzaga's temporary locker room in Wichita. Granted permission by a team manager, who told GU players they could keep the locker room decor, Battle first detached a styrofoam Bulldogs head, then removed a velcro bracket and finally a March Madness logo.
"I've got to start grabbing some stuff because this is my last year," Battle said. "That's why it hurts so bad, but besides that I have no complaints."
Battle wasn't short on mementos or memories when he left Gonzaga's first- and second-round NCAA Tournament site, not regretting much other than the final outcome of a 81-76 loss to top-seeded Houston.
"You've got to give Houston a lot of credit," Battle said. "They sped us up a little bit. Of course, I wish we could've had those first four minutes (back). But like I said, a lot of the players we didn't expect to score stepped up big time and they had big games."
The ball was in Battle's hands as the game clock wound down at Intrust Bank Arena. With less than 10 seconds remaining, Battle curled around a screen set by forward Graham Ike, momentarily lost his handle and ran into a wall of white jerseys as he arrived in the left corner. Raising up for a 3-pointer, Battle was stuffed by Houston's Ja'Vier Francis, effectively sealing the Cougars' win.
One of the game's lasting images occurred in the postgame handshake line, where a bent-over Battle pulled his jersey over his face and broke down in tears. Upon reaching Battle in the handshake line, Houston coach Kelvin Sampson tapped the guard's head, rested his right arm on Battle's shoulder and hugged him, sharing a few words before both teams left the court.
"I played coach Sampson probably about 10 times in my career," said Battle, who faced the Cougars in American Athletic Conference play during a three-year stint at Temple. "I mean, I kind of know what to expect from Houston. It's never easy against them. He just told me that I have a lot of basketball left in my career, he loved me, and he wishes me the best of luck in my endeavors. That's about it."
Sampson followed Battle's career and witnessed the guard's evolution, from a high-level scorer at Temple and Arkansas where he didn't have a great deal of team success, to a reliable option at Gonzaga where he willingly sacrificed individual numbers to win at a high level with one of the nation's top programs and qualify for his first NCAA Tournament.
"First of all, I admire the young man for choosing to go to Gonzaga, because that tells me winning is important," Sampson said. "A lot of guys jump in the portal because they're not getting enough shots, not getting enough touches. They don't care about winning. When Battle chose to go to play for Mark and his staff, it shows some maturity, because it's not easy to go somewhere where you are going to get coached the right way.
"He'll benefit from this. Those tears at the end of the game told me how much he cared and how much this mattered to him."
Battle may lament how the final play unfolded, but he was also a large reason the Zags were knocking on the door late, threatening to give GU its first win over a No. 1 seed in the program's NCAA Tournament history.
The sixth-year transfer was Gonzaga's second-leading scorer after Ike, finishing with 17 points — 10 coming in the second half, when Battle made two 3-pointers, ...
