In the fallout of the type of season that Drew Valentine could still have nightmares about, he believes that he wakes up with a choice to make every day.
He can choose to allow the bad to discourage him. He could choose to blame others or sit there wondering what he did to deserve luck like this. Valentine–Loyola Chicago’s sixth-year head coach–doesn’t say it, but if he spiraled, he could’ve questioned whether he was made for this after a jarring 9-24 campaign that put Loyola atop the leaderboards of college basketball’s most disappointing teams in 2025-26.
But Valentine didn’t.
Instead, he picks happiness. He declines to label Loyola’s downtrodden season in any dramatic terms or make any sweeping generalizations as a result. On this September day, Valentine doesn’t come off as a coach searching for answers and revitalization as much as one who has no doubt he’ll put a winner on the floor in 2026-27.
“I’m a glass half full kind of guy,” Valentine told Basket Under Review. “I look at last year as a growth opportunity. Did it stink? Yes. Do I want to have, quote-unquote, growth opportunities? No. I want to have success, and I want to have growth through success. All of us would want that, and that’s what I want. I know what the program’s standards are and I’m not changing them in any way, but it’s just the reality of where we’re at. Rather than choosing to feel negative, I want to feel positive and still have good energy about the program.”
