Michigan State’s Valentine out 2-3 weeks with injury

Tom Izzo and the undefeated and top-ranked Michigan State Spartans will be without their best player, Denzel Valentine, for 2-3 weeks following an injury he suffered in practice on Sunday night. Even though Valentine was the leading scorer in his team’s last game at Northeastern (17 points, 5 rebounds, and 6 assists in 29 minutes), the 22-year old had two very turbulent outings at home when matched against Maryland-Eastern Shore and Florida considering he shot the ball very poorly (9 for 28) while averaging only 14 points. Izzo compared the procedure with one that cost MSU senior center Goran Suton a couple weeks in the 2008-09 season, and the expectation is that Valentine will be 100% healthy when he returns, as early as January 7 against IL.

Izzo said Valentine was “crushed” Sunday night when he learned he would require surgery to take care of the chip in his knee.

“The other area that somebody’s gonna have to step up, and I think Tum (Tum Nairn)’s ready to do that, is in our leadership”, Izzo said.

Kahlil Felder has been that player for Oakland (7-3), which is off to its best start since joining Division I in 1998. “This will be a new challenge, a new chapter for us”.

“We’ve talked about our depth”.

Michigan State boasts victories over No. 2 Kansas, No. 10 Providence and No. 16 Louisville while matching the 2000-01 team for the best start in school history.

The junior guard is far from one-dimensional, though.

The No. 1 team in America just lost the No. 1 player in America. “We see that every day. But if our defense is good, we’ve still got the athletes to finish on the fast break”.

Izzo does, too, but his squad held Felder to 13 points on 3-of-12 shooting in last season’s 87-61 win.

Felder had 38 points and nine assists at Washington, and the Golden Grizzlies got a lift from another Pershing product, Texas transfer and 6-4 wing Martez Walker – who scored 18 points in his season debut, including eight straight points in a key second-half stretch.

“It’s very, very minor”, Izzo said. “They went out and demolished Washington”.

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