NBA Draft: Talor Battle Goes Undrafted

The 2011 NBA Draft was Thursday night in Newark, N.J. and to the surprise of few, Penn State legend Talor Battle went undrafted. Clubs including Washington, Sacramento, and Oklahoma City had shown interest in the former Nittany Lion guard by inviting him to work out, but ultimately, he was not selected in the two round draft.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing for Battle, though, who joined other former college stars including Ohio State's David Lighty,  Illinois' Demetri McCamey and Notre Dame's Ben Hansbrough in the ranks of the undrafted while enigmas like Chukwudiebere Maduabum, a 0.7 point per game scorer in the NBDL, Targuy Ngombo out of Qatar, and Ater Majok from Australia were selected with picks late in the draft.

These International no-names were selected by teams with full rosters little intention of signing them. Clubs can retain the rights to those players as long as they're overseas and wait for them to develop before signing them to NBA contracts. Had Battle been selected late in the second round, there's a good chance he would have been stuck trying to make one team that wasn't really interested in him in the first place. Now, as an undrafted free agent, he can sign with whatever club he thinks is the best fit for him, definitely a preferable situation.

After the draft, Battle appeared disappointed but hopeful about his future on Twitter.

We'll keep you posted on that journey as he looks to sign with a team and break into the NBA. Stay tuned.