RaeQuan Battle was obviously frustrated throughout West Virginia’s 72-59 loss to UCF on Tuesday.
The fifth-year guard would be ejected with 10:52 to play on Tuesday, while he finished with five points on 2 for 6 shooting. West Virginia interim head coach Josh Eilert weighed in on Battle’s ejection as well as what his message was for him before he left the court.
“He’s frustrated and I get it and I understand his frustrations but he handled it the wrong way. He handled it the wrong way and he knows it. He popped off a couple times and it warranted what it gave him,” Eilert said.
Eilert said this type of thing can be used as a positive to help Battle going forward.
“It’s a teaching moment. I gave him a hug, told him I love him and said we got to fix this. We got to fix this, let me deal with [the referees], we got to have more discipline. When things get tough, we got to have that mental toughness to just play through it. Play through it, figure out what it is we can do to correct what we’re getting into,” Eilert said.
Eilert said he felt as though the lack of whistles in favor of Battle when he tried to draw contact on offense led to the frustration from Battle. He said the officials saw that frustration and that’s what warranted the two technical fouls.
“Sometimes he’s trying to do too much and trying to draw contact and he’s not getting those calls and he’s not getting those calls and that’s probably what the officials saw,” Eilert said. “He popped off on them so I wanted to use that moment to do a little teaching and a little life lesson so I had that moment with him and he went off the floor with his head held high.”
