Before flying to an AAU tournament the summer before his junior year in high school, Denzel Valentine asked Michigan State coach Tom Izzo what else he needed to do to earn a scholarship offer.

Izzo's response was blunt. He wouldn't promise a scholarship until Valentine proved his outside shooting wasn't a liability.

For the son of a former Michigan State star who grew up attending basketball camps at the Breslin Center and staying up past his bedtime watching Spartans games, Izzo's words were humbling yet inspirational. As soon as the meeting was over, Valentine headed straight to the gym, where for more than three hours put himself through shooting drill after shooting drill.

"I had to drag him out of there," his dad Carlton Valentine said. "That's Denzel in a nutshell. If someone says he can't do something, he's going to work as hard as he can to prove them wrong."

When Izzo next watched Valentine a few weeks later at the prestigious Adidas Super 64 tournament in Las Vegas, the versatile guard sank seven 3-pointers in a single game. Hours later, Izzo sent word that the Michigan State scholarship offer Valentine coveted would be waiting for the Lansing native when he arrived home.

The ferocity with which Valentine pursued his dream of playing for Michigan State turned out to be a harbinger of things to come. Fueled by the desire to forge a legacy rivaling that of the Spartans legends he grew up idolizing, Valentine has worked relentlessly the past four years to evolve from a fancy-passing role player, to a key starter on a Final Four team, to a surprise national player of the year candidate.

Valentine is averaging 19.9 points, 8.9 rebounds and 8.6 assists so far this season, propelling third-ranked Michigan State to a 7-0 start despite the graduation of last year's leading scorer Travis Trice and leading rebounder Branden Dawson. The versatile 6-foot-5 guard has saved his best performances for some of the Spartans' highest-profile games, notching triple-doubles against both Kansas and Boston College and torching Boise State for a career-high 32 points.

At halftime of Michigan State's victory over Providence in the Wooden Legacy title game last Sunday night, the greatest Spartan of them all paid Valentine the ultimate compliment.

"He's like myself and Draymond [Green] because he can just do everything," Magic Johnson said. "He can rebound, score, assist and he gets so much joy out of setting his teammates up. His basketball IQ was already off the charts when he came to Michigan State, but the way he's shooting the basketball right now is amazing."

View photos Michigan State coach Tom Izzo, right, gets a hug from guard Denzel Valentine. (AP Photo/Alex Gallardo) More

Praise like that from Johnson is especially meaningful to Valentine because he is so well-versed in the history of Michigan State basketball. The boy who used to stand outside the Spartans locker room with hats or T-shirts for players to sign has worked diligently to become the guy who today's Lansing kids line up to see.

He has turned his trademark court vision into a more potent weapon by curbing his habit of attempting the spectacular pass rather than the simple one. He has reshaped his body by eliminating fried foods and sweets from his diet and spending a couple hours each day doing conditioning, weightlifting and agility drills. And he has revamped the shooting stroke Izzo once feared would be a weak spot, turning it into enough of a strength that opposing defenders don't dare go underneath screens against him anymore.

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