Reports: Ex-Michigan State basketball GA Drew Valentine to be promoted at Loyola Chicago

Tom Izzo's Michigan State basketball coaching tree reportedly has a new branch. (As does Greg Kampe's at Oakland.)

With former Loyola Chicago head coach Porter Moser headed to Oklahoma, the Ramblers are expected to put assistant coach Drew Valentine in charge, according to reports from the Lansing State Journal, ESPN and the Chicago Tribune.

Valentine played four seasons at Oakland under Kampe, then spent two seasons as a grad assistant under Izzo at Michigan State, where his brother Denzel was a star.

Valentine then returned to OU as an assistant for two seasons before joining Moser’s staff in 2017. At Loyola, Valentine served as the Ramblers' "defensive coordinator." Loyola Chicago made the NCAA tournament as a No. 8-seed and knocked off Big Ten tournament champion Illinois before losing in the Sweet 16 to Oregon State. Loyola allowed an average of 57.3 points to its NCAA foes, including just 58 by the Illini, who averaged more than 80 points a game this season.

“Drew has a great coaching pedigree with his father being a coach and then working under two of the best coaches in the game in Tom Izzo and Greg Kampe,” Moser said in Valentine’s bio on Loyola’s website. “Drew is a winner and has played a key role with successful programs, helping Oakland to the NCAA Tournament as a player and then assisting with Michigan State’s run to the Final Four. He made an immediate impact at Oakland and helped elevate that program into a perennial top team in the Horizon League. Drew is a high-energy individual and is a rising star in this profession.”

As a player, the Lansing native averaged 7.9 points and 5.2 rebounds a game over 136 appearances for the Golden Grizzlies from 2009-13. He played for his father, Carlton, at Lansing Sexton.

Denzel Valentine is in Chicago, as well; the former MSU player is averaging 7.5 points and 3.9 rebounds a game in 42 appearances this seaosn with the Bulls in the NBA.

Several Izzo assistants have gone on to head their own teams to varying degrees of success, with the most notable being Georgia head coach (and Jim Harbaugh brother-in-law) Tom Crean. Ex-MSU assistant Brian Gregory runs the South Florida program while Stan Heath is the coach of the Lakeland Magic in the NBA's G League.

Contact Ryan Ford at rford@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @theford.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Reports: Ex-MSU basketball GA Drew Valentine hired by Loyola Chicago