The last trip to Los Angeles made by the University of Colorado men's basketball team was a memorable one for Evan Battey. Yet not for the reasons he would prefer.
It was mid-January 2018 when the Buffaloes made their almost-annual journey to UCLA and USC. During the trip, a Battey very much different than the young man the Buffs knew less than a month earlier reconnected with his teammates. Battey had been at his southern California home, recovering from a sudden and wildly unexpected stroke he suffered the day after Christmas, and when he met up with his teammates again the nerve damage to one side of Battey's face was so pronounced that simply talking was difficult.