Michigan State will see a familiar face when it opens play in the Battle 4 Atlantis.
First-round games for the annual tournament that runs Nov. 24-26 were released on Wednesday, and the Spartans will take on Loyola Chicago, which is led by first-year coach Drew Valentine, at noon on Nov. 24.
Valentine is the Lansing native who was a graduate assistant under Tom Izzo at Michigan State and is the brother of former Spartan Denzel Valentine. He was named Loyola’s coach earlier this year after Porter Moser left to become the head coach at Oklahoma.