Syracuse’s Tyus Battle is one of 10 shooting guards named to the Jerry West Award Watch List for the nation’s top player at that position. The award is presented at the end of the season by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Battle was named to the same list of 10 a year ago. This season, the junior has slightly decreased his scoring load at 17.5 points per game. But he’s raised his distribution, ranking second on the Orange (16-6, 7-2 Atlantic Coast) with 56 assists. Recently, SU sophomore Marek Dolezaj referred to Battle as Syracuse’s “starting machine.”

Battle also continues to rise up through the all-time Syracuse leaderboards. He ranks 27th on the all-time SU scoring leaderboard, soon to pass program greats Louis Orr and Dwayne “Pearl” Washington. Battle also ranks 12th in Syracuse history in made 3-pointers.

The ACC’s other representatives on the list of 10 are RJ Barrett (Duke), Kyle Guy (Virginia) and Nickeil Alexander-Walker (Virginia Tech). The other nominees are Jarron Cumberland (Cincinnati), Justin Wright-Foreman (Hofstra), Quinndary Weatherspoon (Mississippi State), Jarrett Culver (Texas Tech), Phil Booth (Villanova) and Jaylen Nowell (Washington).

This will be the fifth spring the West Award is given out. The prior four winners are Purdue’s Carsen Edwards, Kentucky’s Malik Monk, Oklahoma’s Buddy Hield and Ohio State’s D’Angelo Russell.

The award winner will be announced at The College Basketball Awards in Los Angeles on April 12.
Syracuse returns to the court tonight to take on No. 22 Florida State in the Carrier Dome at 8 p.m.