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Cleaves overcame injuries to become a second-team All-America and Big Ten Player of the Year.
(Jonathan Daniel)
| Mateen Cleaves,
Michigan
State
Class:
Sophomore Position:
Guard
Height:
6'2" Weight:
190
DOB:
September 7,
1977
Hometown:
Flint,
Mich.
High School:
Northern
Vital
Stats: 16.1 points per game, 7.3 assists, 2.5 steals
by Chad Millman
Michigan State point guard Mateen Cleaves needs to stay far
away from anything connected to the University of Michigan
basketball
team.
In the wee hours of Feb. 18, after the Spartans had beaten
Michigan for the first time in Cleaves's MSU career, he was
arrested in a car with teammate Andre Hutson for being a
minor in possession of alcohol. In the midst of celebrating
his greatest
victory as a collegian, Cleaves, who earned national recognition
this year for guiding his team to the top of the Big Ten
while leading the conference in assists and steals, was
suddenly just another athlete in
trouble.
"I feel I let my family down, my team down and MSU
down," Cleaves said after the arrest. Michigan State
coach Tom Izzo said he was embarrassed by the incident. The
timing of the arrest was bizarre. Exactly two years earlier
to the day, Cleaves, then one
of the top high school point guards in the nation, went on
a recruiting trip to the University of Michigan. A group of
U-M players took Cleaves off-campus to a party in Detroit.
While the group was on its way back to Ann Arbor, the Ford
Explorer they
were riding in rolled over. The driver, former Michigan
forward Maurice Taylor, had allegedly fallen asleep at the
wheel; fortunately, the worst injury was Robert Traylor's
broken
arm.
A few weeks later, East Lansing celebrated when Cleaves
announced he would be attending Michigan State. But during
his freshman year Cleaves wasn't the same dynamic player he
had been at Flint Northern High School. In the crash,
Cleaves seriously
wrenched his back, limiting his mobility and causing him intense
pain. He gained close to 30 pounds because of immobility,
wore a brace and spent more time in therapy than in the
gym. "I weighed almost 220 pounds last year," he
says. "I couldn't compete. I
lost confidence in myself. I felt terrible about
myself."
During the offseason the pain in Cleaves's back subsided
and he dedicated himself to regaining his old form. The
dividends were immediate. Michigan State, predicted to
finish near the bottom of the Big Ten, jumped out to a 10-1
start, the best in school
history. Cleaves showed an ability to dominate a game,
scoring 32 of a career-high 34 in the second half against
Northwestern and 24 second-half points in an early-season
win over Illinois. And then, with 10 days left in the
season, came the arrest.
(Charges will be dropped if Cleaves completes a counseling
program.)
As usual, the biggest thorn in Michigan State's side is
Michigan.
Other Spotlights
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March 11: Tyrone Weeks, Massachusetts
March 10: Brett Robisch, Oklahoma St.
March 9: Larry Hughes, Saint Louis
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