West Virginia Guard RaeQuan Battle looks on prior to the game against the Pittsburgh Panthers on Dec. 6, 2023, in Morgantown, WV. Battle, formerly of Montana State, has yet to play this season. College athletes like Battle who were denied the chance to play immediately after transferring a second time can return to competition, for now, after a federal judge issued a 14-day temporary restraining order Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023, against the NCAA. (William Wotring/The Dominion-Post via AP)

One can only guess how sick West Virginia guard RaeQuan Battle had to be to miss his own coming out party Saturday night as the Mountaineers he fought so hard to be a part of played in the Hall of Fame Classic in Springfield, Mass.

He poured his heart out in his long battle against the injustice the NCAA had laid upon him by declaring him ineligible in the first place, but now as the game drew near he was pouring out fluids from other parts of his body.

Flu-like symptoms, they classified it as, but the aches and pains that came with the flu were nothing compared to those he suffered through as he watched his team lose again this time to UMass, in a game made for just what he had to offer.

It was supposed to be an early Christmas gift to him, but it went haywire on a day when so much else was right with the team.

If you can imagine his pain, think of the joy the day brought to his teammate, Josiah Harris.

You read about him this year, about how hyped up he was on graduation day … but not because he was a graduating senior.

He was a graduating sophomore.

He’d brought about 60 credits he’d earned while in high school and community college with him to West Virginia and got to let his family see him walk for that diploma, fulfilling a dream that had driven him into areas other high school students dared not tread.

Then he took off his cap and gown, grabbed whatever it is you take on a day trip to Massachusetts, flew to Springfield, where he joined his team for that night’s basketball game.

And his first post-graduate test was a good one, except for the outcome, one as he scored 10 points, hit a couple of 3s and a couple of key baskets and grabbed off six rebounds to lead WVU where it needed the most help.

And then there was Kerr Kriisa, scoring 20 points on his first night out of NCAA jail, added 7 assists and showed everyone and a national TV audience on ESPNU what they had been missing for those nine games he missed.

But as happy as he was, think of his mother, Kirsti Kull, who flew in from his native Estonia to see her son in his first game at WVU.

Of course, as long as you’re there on the East Coast, you might as well stop into Manhattan and do some Christmas shopping, just to make it even more of an occasion.

And then there was Noah Farrakhan, whose mother finds both Manhattan and Massachusetts more accessible from her home in Hillside, N.J., getting his own Christmas surprise when the NCAA decided to give in to the pressure being brought upon it over its transfer rule and refusal to grant waivers for eligibility.

Farrakhan, who played last year at Eastern Michigan, had been certain he would not play this year as there was no waiver request situation. But he, along with Battle, were given the OK to play immediately and not have to worry about losing a year of eligibility should the NCAA win the court case.

So he was hustled into action in this one and proved to be a force, scoring 15 points on 7 of 11 shooting with 4 assists in a performance that will elevate his standing immediately.

The shame, though, was that Battle was deprived of his moment with Farrakhan, for it never would have happened without Battle baring his soul while challenging the NCAA’s authority to make the call it made.

But in a way he gets a break for now he can debut at home, in the Coliseum, trot down the carpet as the spotlight shines on him and the fans cheer his arrival.

It will surely be a moment to cherish and take with him, a moment he will remember even longer than the illness that struck him this week … unless the flight home is a bit bumpy.