Wichita State schedules visit with rising top-150 basketball prospect in class of 2024

Taylor Eldridge
·2 min read

Wichita State will have the first chance to make an impression on a rising basketball prospect in the class of 2024.

Dillon Battie, a 6-foot-9 forward from Lancaster, Texas, ranked No. 142 nationally by recruiting service On3, has scheduled an official visit with Paul Mills and the Shockers starting on Friday, Sept. 1, according to national recruiting analyst Jamie Shaw.

A steady stream of hyper-athletic dunks mixed with a smooth outside stroke while playing for Team Trae Young on the Adidas 3-Stripes Select Basketball circuit this spring and summer has earned Battie scholarship offers from high-major programs like Illinois, Oklahoma, Virginia Tech, Washington and Washington State.

“Dillon Battie has been one of the highest stock risers of the spring,” high school scouting service TheTB5 Reports posted in May. “The bouncy four man showed why coaches have been scrambling to see and get more information on him.”

Fellow American Athletic Conference teams Temple and SMU have also joined in on the pursuit for the top-150 prospect.

WSU joined the ranks offering Battie after watching him play in a Texas showcase event in Carrollton in late June. The Shockers were one of three schools to schedule an official visit with Battie, who told On3 he plans to visit Oklahoma State on Sept. 8 and OU on Sept. 29. He also told the recruiting service that Arkansas, TCU, Virginia Tech, Washington and Temple are other teams he hears from a lot.

Battie comes from a rich basketball family; his father, Derrick, was a 6-10 forward who was a four-year starter for Temple from 1992-96, while his uncle, Tony, was a 6-11 center drafted No. 5 overall in the 1997 NBA Draft and played 15 seasons in the NBA.

Mills and his staff have many ties to the state of Texas, which could be a theme in their recruiting at WSU. Mills is a Houston native and coached under Scott Drew at Baylor for 14 seasons, while assistant Quincy Acy is a Mesquite native who is a former star player at Baylor and assistant Kenton Paulino played for the Texas Longhorns.

WSU currently has two players who will exhaust their eligibility following this season in center Jacob Germany and forward Dalen Ridgnal, leaving Mills and his staff at least two scholarships to fill in WSU’s 2024 recruiting class. Battie is the first 2024 recruit to publicly announce a visit to Wichita State.