Michigan State Basketball: Top 10 fan favorite players of Tom Izzo era

This list wouldn’t be complete without a Denzel Valentine appearance. Like Kalin Lucas, I don’t think Denzel gets the credit he deserves for being one of the best Spartans in the past two decades.

If you’re anything like me, watching Denzel in his first season-plus in East Lansing was infuriating. He was a turnover machine and while he did a little of everything, he just seemed to make boneheaded decisions. It didn’t take long for him to win me over as a player and just a genuine dude on and off the court as he evolved quickly.

Denzel’s freshman year was forgettable, but his junior and senior seasons were legendary. Outside of a first-round upset loss to Middle Tennessee which ended his MSU career far too early, he did very little wrong.

In fact, he was a Big Ten player of the year, AP player of the year, Naismith and Wooden finalist and Big Ten tournament champion. He never won a regular season conference title, but he did just about everything else and it looked like his senior year might end with a national title — that’s just how good that team was — but Middle Tennessee had other plans.

Denzel finished his senior year averaging 20.5 points, 7.8 assists and 6.8 rebounds. He was a triple-double waiting to happen and it’s a shame he hasn’t excelled in the NBA yet.