Michigan State Basketball: 5 potential eventual replacements for Tom Izzo

By Connor Muldowney | Apr 9, 2021

Michigan State's head coach Tom Izzo, right, talks with Nebraska's head coach Fred Hoiberg before the game on Saturday, Feb. 6, 2021, at the Breslin Center in East Lansing.210206 Msu Neb 029a /

4 of 6

Oakland assistant coach Drew Valentine says he wants to be a head coach someday and the opportunity to be the lead assistant at Loyola in Chicago is a good next step. His brother, Denzel, plays for the Bulls. Oakland assistant coach Drew Valentine helps his team practice Dec. 21, 2015 at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

Oakland assistant coach Drew Valentine says he wants to be a head coach someday and the opportunity to be the lead assistant at Loyola in Chicago is a good next step. His brother, Denzel, plays for the Bulls. Oakland assistant coach Drew Valentine helps his team practice Dec. 21, 2015 at the Palace of Auburn Hills. /

3. Drew Valentine

When Drew Valentine was playing at Oakland against his younger brother Denzel, no one could have imagined that he was going to be one of the brightest young coaching stars in college basketball in about a decade.

Valentine had a solid career at Oakland, averaging 7.9 points and 5.2 rebounds in four years before getting ready to play overseas, but he chose to be a grad assistant at Michigan State while Denzel was still on the team. He helped coach that team to a Final Four before heading back to Oakland to be an assistant coach from 2015-17.

More from Spartans Basketball

Drew left Oakland to take an assistant job at Loyola where he helped lead the Ramblers and Porter Moser to a Final Four and a school-record 32 wins in his first season. He also helped lead Loyola to the Sweet 16 this past season before losing to Oregon State.

As an assistant, Valentine was 6-2 in the NCAA Tournament with Loyola and he was regarded as one of the brightest young assistants in the country at the age of 29.

So when Moser took the vacant Oklahoma head coaching job, Loyola turned to Valentine to take over the Ramblers. A lot of Spartan fans wanted Valentine to be on Izzo’s staff this offseason with Dane Fife’s departure but when he was named head coach of Loyola, those hopes were crushed.

I guess we’ll just have to wait for Tom Izzo to retire to welcome Drew back to East Lansing as a potential replacement, depending on how well he does at Loyola.

Home/Spartans Basketball