Couch: A year later, Denzel Valentine can't shake the hurt
Denzel Valentine can’t bring himself to fill out an NCAA tournament bracket.
“It’s too soon,” the former Michigan State star said Thursday morning, on the eve of MSU’s NCAA tournament opener against Miami and 363 days after the Spartans’ upset loss to Middle Tennessee State in their last NCAA tournament game.
The heartbreak of that sudden and unexpected ending to a charmed season hasn’t left Valentine. Being a first-round NBA draft pick, life as a rookie with the Chicago Bulls, his pockets flush with cash — it’s all good stuff. None of it is enough to shed the sick feeling in Valentine’s gut when he sees a promo for the NCAA tournament.
“I think about it all the time, especially like now,” Valentine said. “I can’t even stand it. Everybody on the Bulls is doing a bracket, talking about it, and I’m still kind of hurt. It’s a year later, but it’s going to take me a couple Marches to get over it completely, I think.”
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Last year’s first-round exit remains the greatest opportunity lost of the Tom Izzo era. MSU was a 2 seed, but among the favorites to win the entire tournament. No one who played or coached on MSU’s side in that 90-81 loss in St. Louis is over it.
As MSU gets set to make another go of it, with a younger roster, a lesser seed and lower expectations, last season still makes the Spartans shake their heads.
“I think about it every day,” MSU junior point guard Tum Tum Nairn said. “What really still pops out at me from that game, it was like 16 minutes into the second half, (I was on the bench and) I looked at Denzel and he looked right at me and there was a look in eyes, like, ‘Man, we’ve got to go, we’ve got to go.’ I’ve never seen him look that way before. That’s one thing I remember from the game. We had the opportunity of a lifetime, and it just didn’t happen.”
Valentine has his own seared memory. It might be close to the same moment.
“I don’t know how much time was left in the second half, but we were making our comeback and it was going back and forth and then, they just hit a crazy shot after we missed a shot and Coach called a timeout,” Valentine said. “At that point I realized it wasn’t our day and that we were in trouble and that my career might be coming to an end.
“Whenever I think back to my college career, I always think what I could have done better. I honestly look myself in the mirror and say I gave it my all. They just caught us on a bad day that day. When we had a bad day, they had a tremendous game.”
It is this point that gives Valentine peace — that he left it all on the court, even in failure. That’s his advice for this year’s team. It’s the key to avoiding regret.
“If you look at yourself in the mirror and say, you left everything out there on the floor that you worked for and did everything you could have done, you can live with yourself. And play with an edge. I think that’s one thing we’ve got to do being a 9 seed.
“I think we’re at a good place now, even though our record may not show it. I still look at us as one of the best teams in the tournament. We’ve just got to go out there and play like it.”
Valentine has talked with many of MSU’s players throughout the season. His most important conversations of late have been with freshman point guard Cassius Winston, whose performance is critical this weekend.
“We’re kind of similar like players, even though he’s 6-foot and I’m 6-5,” Valentine said. “We play similarly. We play kind of loose, but we make plays for our teammates and then we can also score the ball. I just try to tell him, when you’re in there, look to score. That’s one thing I wish I had done my freshman year, look to score more, because it’ll open up passing opportunities and the rest of your game.”
Valentine plans to watch what he can of MSU’s game tonight. He might not see much of it. The Bulls play at the Washington Wizards at 7 o’clock, and he fears the Bulls will be in the air flying back during the second half of MSU’s game. His concern Thursday was about how to watch the game on his phone.
He won’t be able to follow MSU’s game from the bench during the fourth quarter. Valentine is often on the court these days, playing at least 14 minutes in every Bulls game since an All-Star break trade freed up a larger role for him. He’s played 23 or more minutes in seven of the 11 games since.
His mind Friday will be on his old team. The rest of the tournament, he’ll watch, he said. But not easily.
“I experienced the Final Four, the Elite Eight, the Sweet 16 my other three years (at MSU), so that helps the pain,” Valentine said. “But to go out like that hurts.”
Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.