Bulls guard Denzel Valentine thinks Loyola could become Chicago’s real home team

ORLANDO, Fla. — Denzel Valentine obviously isn’t opposed to playing college recruiter.

With the Bulls using Saturday as a “mental day,’’ the second-year swingman will be jetting to San Antonio to watch the Final Four — more specifically, he’ll be taking in the Loyola-Michigan game.

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Valentine’s older brother, Drew, is an assistant coach for the Ramblers, and Valentine has been preaching everything Loyola since it went on its historic run through the NCAA Tournament.

That didn’t stop on Friday, as younger brother sounded like a recruiting pamphlet. A good one at that.

Valentine, who played at Michigan State and has a good feel for Midwest basketball these days, said the Chicago area has watched its top high school basketball talents flee out of state far too often with DePaul, Illinois and Northwestern failing to grab its own.

Maybe, just maybe, Loyola starts to become that beacon that keeps kids home, especially with a roster already full of local talent.

“I don’t know what [the Loyola coaching staff] discusses, but I think that’s definitely a strong possibility,’’ Valentine said. “I don’t know what their motives long-term are, but I just know that they work hard. They love what they do, and they’re passionate with what they do, and that brings good karma. Kids want to be a part of that, and I think the city respects what they do because you gotta respect something like that.

“There’s a good number of Chicago kids on that team, and those Chicago kids are putting in work, too. A lot of kids playing ball in Chicago that are reading about these guys or are on Twitter reading these stories, they can relate. It’s like, OK, these are the same kids that went to the public schools that they know, and now they went to a mid-major school, and they’re about to be legends, you know. They have a chance to make an impact.’’

Valentine agreed that Chicago high school basketball talent is ripe for the taking these days, so why not Loyola?

“Yeah, and they compete in a pretty good league,’’ Valentine said. “Their schedule is pretty good. You get to live in Chicago. I mean, there’s not many cities better than Chicago, so as far as exposure and living-wise, it could be a great situation.’’

A shutdown coming

Coach Fred Hoiberg still won’t say that Kris Dunn (toe) and Zach LaVine (left knee) will be shut down for the rest of the regular season. But he hinted that it’s starting to lean that way.

The Bulls only have six games left, and there’s not enough time to get them back in condition.

“Yeah, it has,’’ Hoiberg said when asked if time has basically run out. “We have six games [left], and we basically play 30 hours after we get back. We have a back-to-back [left next weekend], so we’ll re-evaluate when we get back. See if those guys can test it and go from there.’’