Penn State Great Hired by Ohio State

One of the greatest players in Penn State basketball history is joining the coaching staff of one of PSU’s biggest rivals.

It was announced early Monday afternoon that Ohio State had hired Talor Battle as an assistant coach.

Help us welcome another member of the staff to Buckeye Nation‼️@JakeDiebler has announced the hiring of Assistant Coach Talor Battle. Battle joins the program having coached the last 4️⃣ years in the Big Ten, previously at Northwestern & Penn State.

📝 https://t.co/w77ClmOTMC pic.twitter.com/55XYkkUfyU

— Ohio State Hoops 🌰 (@OhioStateHoops) June 3, 2024

Previously, Battle had been on coach Chris Collins’ staff at Northwestern for three seasons.

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In that time, Battle helped Northwestern to two NCAA Tournament appearances, with the team reaching the Round of 32 in each. The best player on those Northwestern teams was Battle’s half-brother, Boo Buie. Battle was going to be on coach Micah Shrewsberry’s staff at PSU but ended up accepting an offer from Northwestern.

Battle, of course, is known to PSU fans for what he did during his playing career. Battle led Penn State on two of the best runs in program history. As a sophomore, he led Penn State to the 2009 NIT championship. Two seasons later, he led Penn State to the NCAA Tournament, a journey that was highlighted by a run to the Big Ten Championship Game. Individually, Battle is Penn State’s all-time leading scorer, ending his college career with 2,213 points. He also ended his career fourth in the school’s all-time assists list, third in 3-point field goals, second in total field goals and first in steals. His 4,799 minutes played were first not just in Penn State history, but Big Ten history as well.

After college, Battle spent seven years playing professionally overseas before getting into coaching. He’ll now be on Jake Diebler’s first staff. Diebler took over as interim coach last February for the fired Chris Holtmann. Diebler’s brother, John, started for Ohio State while Battle was at Penn State.