BOULDER, Colo. -- Colorado basketball coach Tad Boyle is upset with an NCAA decision that will force freshman forward Evan Battey to take an academic redshirt this season.
"We lost the waiver process, and it is extremely disappointing," he said. "The people on the waiver committee missed the boat on this one. They have no idea what kind of kid Evan Battey is, certainly how ready he is to be a college student-athlete."
Battey, a 6-foot-8 forward from View Park, California, will practice and run on the scout team this season. He'll have four years of eligibility remaining beginning in 2018-19.
Boyle has been coaching in Division I for nearly a quarter-century.
"I'm not sure I've ever been around a kid who is more academically and athletically ready to play," he said. "Due to circumstances early in his high school career, the NCAA has deemed him an academic redshirt."
The NCAA ruled that Battey couldn't play this season because he didn't graduate from high school in four years. He repeated the ninth grade at the Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies.
Battey averaged 24 points as a junior and wasn't permitted to play as a senior at Villa Park High School last season because he'd exhausted his eight semesters of high school eligibility.
He stayed involved with the program, however, and in the spring he was recognized by the Orange County Athletic Directors Association with its Athlete of Character Award.
Battey intends to make the most of his redshirt season.
"I know I can help this team off the floor better than anyone in the country because I've had that experience of doing it before," he said.