Michigan State University Athletics
Valentine Named Sporting News All-American
3/9/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Michigan State senior guard Denzel Valentine was named First-Team All-America by the Sporting News Wednesday. He is the first Spartan to be honored by the magazine since Draymond Green in 2012 and the 11th player in program history. He is joined on the first team by Oklahoma's Buddy Hield, Virginia's Malcolm Brogdon, Utah's Jakob Poeltl, and Kentucky's Tyler Ulis.
Besides Green, other Spartans honored by Sporting News include Jason Richardson (2001-2nd Team), Morris Peterson (2000-1st Team), Mateen Cleaves (1999-2nd Team, 2000-1st Team), Shawn Respert (1995-1st Team), Steve Smith (1990-1st Team, 1991-1st Team), Scott Skiles (1986-1st Team), Sam Vincent (1985-1st Team), Earvin "Magic" Johnson (1979-1st Team) and Johnny Green (1958-2nd Team, 1959-2nd Team).
Valentine is the seventh player to earn any type of All-America honors under head coach Tom Izzo, joining Cleaves, Peterson, Charlie Bell, Richardson, Drew Neitzel and Green, and the 23rd in program history.
Valentine is having a historic season, as he is on pace to become the first player to average 19 points, seven rebounds and seven assists since the NCAA first recognized the assist as an official stat in 1983-84. He currently leads the Big Ten in overall scoring (19.6 ppg) and assists (7.5 apg), looking to be the first Big Ten player to do that since Iowa's Andre Woolridge in 1997. He finished Big Ten play averaging 20.5 points and 7.8 assists, becoming just the fourth player to pace the conference in both categories in Big Ten games since 1975, joining Woolridge (1997), Michigan State's Marcus Taylor (2002) and Michigan's Trey Burke (2013). Valentine also leads the Big Ten in 3-point field goals made, both overall (3.4) and in conference games (3.8). He is the first Spartan to lead the conference in scoring in Big Ten games since Taylor in 2002, and just the ninth Spartan all-time to accomplish that feat.
Earlier this season, Valentine became just the fourth Spartan to record a triple-double when he totaled 29 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists against Kansas and one of three Spartans with more than one when he followed nine days later with 29 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists against Boston College. His five games of 25 points, 10 assists and five rebounds are the most in the nation since 2010-11. In games which he has started, Valentine has either made or assisted on 50.2 percent of MSU's baskets.
The postseason honors are quickly accumulating for Valentine. On March 7, he was named First-Team All-America by USA TODAY Sports. He was also named Big Ten Player of the Year, and was a unanimous First-Team All-Big Ten selection. On March 8, he was named National Player of the Year by USA TODAY Sports and NBCSports.com. In addition, he was named the USBWA All-District V player of the year.
