When Kenny Battle left DeKalb in 1986, many regarded him as one of the greatest basketball players to play at NIU.

He returned Monday as the coach of Illinois Institute of Technology, facing the team he formerly called his own.

“It’s always great to come back where you started,” the 40-year old Battle said. “I had a lot of fond memories here at [Chick Evans Field House]. I have a lot of friends here in DeKalb that will always remain friends.”

In Battle’s two All-American seasons with the Huskies, he became the youngest player in MAC history to score 1,000 career points.

One of Battle’s friends in DeKalb, NIU coach Rob Judson, said he would have rather seen him in a Huskie uniform as a player instead of an opposing coach.

“He’s a guy that had two great years here and it was good to have him back in town,” Judson said. “If he had some eligibility left, we’d try to talk him into playing for us again.”

Battle averaged 19.8 points per game in his two seasons at NIU and was an unanimous selection for the Huskie All-Century team.

The “King of the 360s” transferred to Illinois to lead them to the 1989 Final Four before becoming a first-round draft pick for the Detroit Pistons.

Battle spent four years in the NBA averaging 4.7 points per game in six stints with four different teams.

Now he’s in his second year as coach of the Scarlet Hawks, hoping to rebuild a team that hasn’t had a winning season since 1994-1995, when IIT was 14-13.

“When I took over the program, it was way down,” Battle said. “But we’re definitely looking good for the future, we have a great recruiting class coming up.”

Battle’s team went 3-27 in his first year of coaching, after a 2-25 season before his tenure.

The ties between Battle, NIU and Judson helped in scheduling the game, which was the Huskies first exhibition of the season.

“Kenny’s a good guy and had some good years here, so that was a reason why we did that,” Judson said of the scheduling. “It’s always hard to play someone you know because you know they want to win just as bad as you do.”

Battle said he was glad to play upper-level competition and visit his old home, but the Huskies were just glad to play someone other than themselves, Judson said.

“It’s great,” said point guard Anthony Maestranzi, who had eight points in the contest. “We’ve been playing so hard in practice, and it’s nice to get out and play against somebody else.”