Senior Spotlight: RaeQuan Battle

After spending just one season at West Virginia, RaeQuan Battle will be one of the six seniors walking for West Virginia’s senior night.

The 6-foot-5 guard from Tulalip, Washington, transferred to West Virginia in April of 2023 for his final season of eligibility after spending two seasons at the University of Washington before another two at Montana State.

Growing up, Battle was a member of the Tulalip Reservation and became the first Tulalip Tribe member to earn a Division 1 basketball scholarship.

Battle’s time at West Virginia did not start exactly how he expected it to. After his initial request for a waiver was denied, his appeal was denied as well. Following the denial of his appeal, Battle took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to send a video to the NCAA explaining his reasoning for transferring to West Virginia.

Following this, a lawsuit was filed and Battle took his case to court. A federal judge ruled in favor and granted a TRO for 14 days, which was then extended to the end of the spring sports season, thus allowing for Battle to become immediately eligible after missing the first nine games of the season, however an illness kept him out for just one more game before he made his West Virginia debut. 

“I never was really angry, I definitely thought it was unfair,” said Battle in a press conference in February. “But, God has a plan for everybody so I didn’t want to kind of dwell on what happened and just keep it positive.”

Battle would make his debut on Dec. 20, where he would score 29 points in a losing effort to Radford, before scoring 29 the very next game to lead the Mountaineers to a victory over Toledo. 

Exactly one month after making his debut, Battle would lead West Virginia to an upset victory over the then No. 3 ranked Kansas Jayhawks. In that game, Battle would score a team high 23 points while also bringing in nine rebounds.

For the season, Battle has averaged 16.8 points on 41% shooting from the field and 34% shooting from deep. Battle has scored 20 or more points on nine different occasions this season.

West Virginia’s senior night game against TCU is set to tip-off at 7:00 and can be streamed on ESPN+.