Drew Valentine is running the Loyola University men’s basketball team through a series of drills. It’s June, but there’s a midseason-like intensity to the practice. Wind sprints. Defensive stops. Valentine doesn’t like what he’s seeing, and he lets his players know, in R-rated language.
“Nobody over here gives a fuck,” he shouts, sounding more disappointed than angry. “Everybody over here just worried about themselves and not the fuckin’ team.”
At 31, Valentine is the youngest coach in Division I—so young that one of his friends says, “Drew could put on a Loyola uniform, and no one would blink an eye.” That’s not quite true: He’s burlier than his players, more thickly bearded. But unlike many college hoops coaches, some of whom are plausibly old enough to be a grandparent to their players, Valentine is a millennial overseeing a group of Gen Zers. He can chop it up about rappers like Lil Durk and G Herbo at team dinners, and he wears the same sneakers his players do. That’s off the court, though. On the court, he can sound as old-fashioned as Bob Knight.
“Bryce, what the fuck are you thinking?” he asks Bryce Golden, his prize transfer from Butler, who was out of position on an offensive setup. “Why does Braden [Norris] have to tell you where to go every time? I’m not fuckin’ dealing with that. Who the fuck do you think you are, lookin’ at me like that?” Golden drops his head.
It’s not all swearing and sarcasm, though. When Valparaiso transfer Sheldon Edwards makes a strong defensive play, Valentine slaps his hand.
The second-year head coach has been with the Ramblers since 2017, when he was hired as an assistant. That season, Loyola reached the Final Four. Before that, the Rogers Park school was such a mid-major obscurity that one of the players on that team, Lucas Williamson, had never heard of it before he was recruited, even though he grew up in the South Loop and went to Whitney M. Young Magnet High School. But this is a new era, and expectations are high. This season, Loyola is switching from the Missouri Valley Conference to the Atlantic 10, a more competitive group of schools that includes Davidson, Dayton, St. Louis, and VCU. The conference’s higher profile could help the Ramblers secure better recruits and more March Madness bids — or
