Tuesday, February 22, 2000
Michigan St. hitches its star to Cleaves
All-American still not himself
BY MIKE DeCOURCY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
When Michigan State point guard Mateen Cleaves returned to practice after a broken foot cost him the first two months of the season, Charlie Bell expected a lot from his backcourt partner. He expected Mateen Cleaves.
That was too much to ask. “He was missing layups, short on his shot, not as quick as he was,” Bell said. “It was kind of surprising. I kind of think of Mateen as superhuman.”
Cleaves has needed time to play himself into the kind of shape that made him a first-team All-American in both his sophomore and junior seasons. While he was gone, Michigan State lost four games. As he tried to recover his form and they adjusted to his return, the Spartans lost twice more.
At 20-6, they have more defeats than any other team in the Associated Press top 10. But voters recognize Cleaves' value to the Spartans and expect each improvement he makes will elevate his team, as well.
“Michigan State is very athletic and plays extremely hard,” Penn State coach Jerry Dunn said. “Transition and rebounding — I think they excel at those two things more than anybody in the country.”
Because the Spartans average 72 points a game, and because they averaged just 68 in the NCAA Tournament last season, they are not widely perceived as a fast-break team. But even after an 11-point victory over MSU, Ohio State coach Jim O'Brien expressed amazement at how quickly Cleaves was able to advance the ball in transition.
There may be no guard in college who runs the fast-break with the degree of speed, authority and dexterity as Cleaves. Given room to run, he's helped the Spartans score 91 points on Illinois, 83 on Ohio State and 85 on Connecticut.
Some teams make great sacrifices, though, to prevent that sort of game from happening: Iowa State, Temple. Wisconsin is like that in the Big Ten, and two games against the Badgers were not pleasant even though Michigan State won both.
There remains work to do. Michigan State is vulnerable when small forward and leading scorer Morris Peterson shuts down. He averaged 13.0 points and .333 shooting in the six defeats, 18.4 points and .500 shooting in the victories.
Cleaves has not had a game where he turned the ball over less than twice. His average is just under four per game. When the Spartans played Northwestern in back-to-back games last month, Wildcats coach Kevin O'Neill perceived a marked difference in how Cleaves handled his team's half-court attack.
“He looks unsure of himself. He looks unsteady,” O'Neill said. “I think their problems are going to come if they get pulled into a half-court offense, whether he can make plays and decisions having been out for that long.”
Cleaves' jump shot has never been a beautiful thing, but he can make 3-pointers in streaks. He was 3-of-4 in last week's victory against Ohio State, 3-of-5 against Michigan.
“I think he's progressed a lot in the halfcourt,” Bell said. “He couldn't knock down the open shot before, and now I think his jumper is much better.”
Although Michigan State is working on its third consecutive Big Ten title with the Cleaves-Bell backcourt, this is not the same team as the one that reached the Final Four last year. The chemistry was altered when muscular center Antonio Smith ended his career with a national semifinal loss to Duke.
He provided a foundation of toughness that the Spartans have not duplicated. Coach Tom Izzo didn't expect that they would, but he figured they ought to make a better representation in the Ohio State loss, when they surrendered 19 points to power forward George Reese.
Izzo arrived in practice the next day with some helmets and shoulder pads he borrowed from the football team. The idea was to send a message about playing tougher. Forward A.J. Granger, Smith's replacement in the lineup, had one rebound against the Buckeyes. He's averaged 7.1 since.
“We kind of got the warrior mentality back,” Bell said. “Antonio brought that every day in practice, and we were missing it.”
Although Michigan State remains in contention for a No. 1 NCAA seed, that could be hurt by the Spartans' relatively low Ratings Percentage Index standing (No. 20) or by another defeat in the Big Ten. That will be difficult to avoid, with road games remaining at Penn State and Indiana this week, plus the Big Ten tournament.
Izzo figures it doesn't matter.
“It's nice to be a one seed,” he said. “But after playing Mississippi and Oklahoma, which were something like 11 and 13, I've come to the realization you might be able to get out of the first round if you're a one or two seed, but after that you better hang on.”
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