Meet Mateen Cleaves This Saturday in Lansing
On Saturday, Mateen Cleaves will be at Midwest Power Equipment off of Jolly Road from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM. The NABC National Championship Trophy will be there too. It's a free event, so you can bring your entire family!
Mateen Cleaves will be at the event, so take advantage and come out and talk to him about basketball. You can get autographs and photos with Mateen too.
Cleaves was integral when MSU beat Florida for the 2000 College Basketball National Championship. It was Mateen who got hurt in that game and came back to will his team to victory. Mateen Cleaves was a tough gritty player who to this day still has a reputation as a lock down defender. He really brought another level of toughness to college hoop during his career.
To this day, Mateen is one of head coach Tom Izzo’s key players in Izzo’s career at MSU. I mean, he gave his son, Steven, Mateen’s name as his middle name. So Tom Izzo’s son’s name is Steven Mateen Izzo.
Mateen had a short stint in the NBA, but he was a first round NBA draft pick with the Detroit Pistons. Mateen Cleaves won a NCAA Championship in 2000, was a consensus first-team All-American in 1999, a 2x Big Ten Player of the Year in1998 and 1999. MSU retired his number 12 too. It hangs in the rafters at the Breslin Center.
So, come one, come all to Midwest Power Equipment on Saturday from 11-2 to meet Mateen Cleaves and take a picture with the NABC National Championship Trophy. See you there!