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A popular player in the recent era of Colorado men’s basketball has officially made his way back to Boulder.
BOULDER, Colo. — One of the most popular players in Colorado men’s basketball history is back in Boulder.
Evan Battey has joined Tad Boyle’s staff at Colorado as an assistant coach/quality control analyst.
Battey didn’t miss a game in his four-year CU playing career, appearing in 133 contests with 108 starts from 2018 to 2022.
Battey, a native of Los Angeles, helped Colorado to the 2021 NCAA Tournament and a pair of postseason NIT appearances. A second NCAA bid in 2020 was wiped away due to the pandemic.
Battey spent his first professional season with Rilski Sportist in Bulgaria, averaging 8.0 points in 29 games. Most recently, Battey played for the Lugano Tigers of the Switzerland Basketball League, averaging 19.1 points in 26 games.
“There’s no better Buff in my mind from head to toe than Evan Battey,” Boyle said. “He loves the University of Colorado. He loves what it did for him and he’s a kid that wants to just give back and being a coach is the best way to do that. He’s going to bring a lot of knowledge about playing college basketball and representing the University of Colorado. He will have the ability to impart the wisdom that he’s learned through his years as a player both at CU and as a professional. He’s helped impart that on the players in our program and he’s going to be able to sell our program.”
“It’s so surreal,” Battey said. “Having the experience of playing here and the experience of forming relationships with the coaches, staff and community and then to be welcomed back with such open arms … it’s been great.”
“I’ll bring the energy, the emotion, the experience,” Battey said. “Just coming from a place that I can relate to the players we have now, in being a former player. I know what they’re going through, and I can add insight and perspective. A lot of communication with the guys. I just want to make sure these guys have the best experience they can have in college basketball.”
“Evan is going to be learning as he goes as a first-year coach,” Boyle said. “He’s got a great number of assistant coaches from Mike Rohn to Bill Grier and now Danny Manning and even Zach (Ruebesam) who’s a young coach whose got some experience now in the business. He can learn from them. But I think in terms of the things I’m going to task him with is going to be communication and the relationship with players that are in the program. That’s first and foremost to me.”
CJ Armitage and Tyson Gilbert, a pair of Colorado natives, have been named graduate managers for the CU 2024-25 men’s basketball season.
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