EAST LANSING, Mich. — It’s complicated business trying to stop Denzel Valentine. There is no clear cut antidote to containing the Michigan State forward.
Try to stay in front of him, he goes through you. Try to hold your ground, he goes around you. Play perfect defense, he drains a 3-pointer in your face.
IU tried it all to stop Valentine in East Lansing, Michigan, on Sunday, but Valentine had an answer for each attempt.
By the time he was hitting his final 3-point shot to end his day with 30 points, 13 assists and five rebounds, Valentine had officially squandered any hopes the Hoosiers had of pulling off a road upset in the Breslin Student Events Center.
The star, vaulting himself back into National Player of the Year race, had IU’s number Sunday.
The Hoosiers opened with sophomore guard Robert Johnson guarding Valentine and junior forward Troy Williams trying to hang with swingman Eron Harris.
Valentine had a 25-pound advantage on Johnson, yet still found ways to get around him all day. Johnson hung tough on Valentine, but couldn’t keep up.
IU Coach Tom Crean said IU let him gain space and dribble to his right too much. Sometimes Valentine would beat Johnson inside. Other times, he would drive, draw pressure and release a floater alley-oop pass to a big man like Gavin Schilling or Matt Costello.
Johnson had his moments, like when Valentine tried posting him up down low in the first half but Johnson violently rejected the star’s hook shot in his face. But for the most part, Johnson couldn’t stay in front of him.
Then IU tried senior guard Yogi Ferrell, at six foot, on Valentine. Sure, Ferrell played hard and kept in front of Valentine better, but the size mismatch was too much. Valentine would stampede his way through Ferrell for contact buckets down low.
IU tried double-teaming when Valentine got the ball in the post, but he was such a good passer that he would quickly find the abandoned man.
Then came the fan favorite matchup, freshman forward OG Anunoby. Of the three, Anunoby might have covered Valentine the best, but in short minutes. He had just enough strength to defend a post up, just enough length to make driving a little more difficult.
Where Anunoby seemed to struggle was getting around all of the off-ball screens set to free up shooters. For all the talk of how good Valentine was in isolation, he may have been the most frightening Sunday when shooting from deep.
Valentine made 5-of-8 shots from 3-point range. Many of these came with a hand in his face, some after IU just couldn’t evade the screens Michigan State set.
Comfort. That was Crean’s key word in the success of Valentine.
He said a defense needs to play Valentine for his scoring, shooting, driving and passing. Crean said Purdue, in a win over Michigan State on Tuesday, showed the key is wearing him down.
IU needed to make Valentine more uncomfortable, and it didn’t do it well enough.
The question is whether IU has a player that can adequately defend all of those skills. Very few schools do. Sure, IU has players great at defending a few of those skills, but who has the strength to hold ground, the athleticism to keep up and the intelligence to always play to game plan?
Valentine is just that good. Maybe he would be contending with Oklahoma’s Buddy Hield for player of the year if he hadn’t missed a three-week stretch earlier in the season.
Michigan State Coach Tom Izzo said it best.
“Put it this way — I think he deserves to be in the race.”
brodmill@indiana.edu
