Big Ten Basketball: Ranking of 25 best players from last decade (2013-23)
By Joey Loose
3. Denzel Valentine
A fringe Top 100 prospect who certainly didn’t play like it, Valentine is a 6’5 guard originally from Lansing, Michigan who stayed pretty close to home. He arrived back in 2012 at Michigan State and would become one of Tom Izzo’s best players in his entire career with the Spartans, helping lead the program to all kinds of success.
He actually wasn’t a major contributor early on, but stepped into a bigger role as a junior. He was good for nearly 15 points a game as a junior and helped lead Michigan State to the Final Four, putting up 22 points and 11 rebounds in their loss to eventual champion Duke in 2015. As a senior, Valentine took another big step forward, averaging 19.2 points, 7.8 assists, and 7.5 rebounds and becoming a total powerhouse for the Spartans. He led the program to another Big Ten Tournament title and had a pair of triple-doubles during the regular season, though their Tourney hopes were vanquished quickly.
The sheer numbers in that senior season were pretty crazy, and that came after he helped lead them to a Final Four as a junior. For that senior year, Valentine was named the AP Player of the Year and won the Julius Erving Award as the top small forward in the country. Not only was the top scorer and leader in assists in the Big Ten, but he shot 44% from outside the arc and was a great rebounder too. Simply put, Valentine did it all while in East Lansing.