With An Eye For Defense, Drew Valentine Takes Charge At Loyola

CHICAGO — Two days after the basketball coach that put the Loyola’s basketball program on a national stage for the first time in more than five decades found a new home, the Ramblers have a new coach.

Drew Valentine, who served as Porter Moser’s top assistant coach for the past four years, took over the program on Monday. Valentine takes over the reigns from Moser, who was named the head coach at Oklahoma over the weekend. The transition takes place after Loyola reached the Sweet 16 this past season and three years after the Ramblers made an improbable run to the Final Four.

Valentine will be officially introduced at a news conference on Tuesday morning. The 29-year-old assistant coach oversaw the Ramblers’ defense and was Moser's de facto defensive coordinator. Defense played a key role in Loyola’s Missouri Valley Conference regular season and tournament championship and its run to the Sweet 16, which included an upset victory over Illinois, the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Regional. Loyola's season ended with a loss to Oregon State before Moser announced he was leaving the program after 10 years at the helm.

Loyola ranked first in the nation in scoring season this past season when the Ramblers allowed just 56.1 points per game. The Ramblers have ranked in the top six in the category in each of Valentine’s four seasons on the Loyola staff.

"It is an absolute honor to be named head men's basketball coach at Loyola University Chicago," Valentine said in a news release issued by the same and who referred to Moser as the biggest mentor of his career. “We will continue to do things the right way, with character and passion! The vision and standard that Coach Moser established will forever remain a part of the culture.”

Moser is believed to have signed a six-year contract with Oklahoma although CBS Sports reported that Loyola offered its former coach a 10-year deal worth $2.2 million per season. Now after his departure, Valentine will take over the program and at age 29, is the youngest head coach at the Division I level.

Terms of the deal were not announced by the school.

"Over the course of his career as both a player and as a coach, Drew had proven that he's a winner who does things the right way," Loyola athletic director Steve Watson said. "We are extremely proud of the recent success of our program and Drew has played a key role in those accomplishments. He is the perfect person to lead us as we continue to build upon that success as we begin the next chapter of Loyola basketball."

Valentine, who is the older brother of Chicago Bulls guard Denzel Valentine, played collegiately at Oakland (Mich.) University, where he worked as an assistant coach for two seasons prior to joining Moser’s staff. Valentine, whose father Carlton, was a standout player at Michigan State, also worked as a graduate manager in East Lansing, where he worked for Hall of Fame coach Tom Izzo and was part of a program that made two Sweet 16 appearances as well as a Final Four berth in 2015.

"Drew was such an integral part of all of our success at Loyola. He has a passion for people and an extremely bright basketball mind,” Moser said in a news release. “It was an absolute no-brainer for him to take over and continue the culture at Loyola. In Drew, people will see a tireless worker but also someone who pours himself into young men. He is unbelievable at building relationships. I've known this for a while, but Drew has all of the qualities needed to be a great head coach."