Cleaves struggles in return

He had been getting lots of good press lately. He was supposed to be the key to a feisty Michigan State team and the frontman of an explosive, perimeter-oriented offense.

Mateen Cleaves, point-guard extraordinaire - he of the infamous recruiting visit and Maurice Taylor car accident - was leading the Big Ten in assists, leading his team in scoring, steals and minutes, and, most important of all, leading his Spartans into Ann Arbor to show the locals exactly what they missed out on when Cleaves chose Michigan State over Michigan.

He was 4-for-19.

To be fair, Cleaves did score 14 points, he did have five assists and he did have five steals. But his poor shooting and five turnovers were far more indicative of what he did for the Spartans - or, perhaps more accurately, for the Wolverines - on S

SARA STILLMAN/Daily There was nowhere to go for Spartan center DuJuan Wiley as Michigan's Maceo Baston and the Wolverines' defense put a clamp on Michigan State, holding the Spartans to 37 percent shooting.

aturday afternoon.

The Spartans struggled from the very beginning, and Cleaves was unable to get them on track. By halftime, he was 1-of-8 shooting the ball, with three turnovers and a couple of fouls.

All Michigan State coach Tom Izzo would say was that "Mateen struggled a little bit," which was less than enlightening. But Michigan coach Brian Ellerbe gave Louis Bullock much of the credit for Cleaves' problems.

"Lou did a terrific job shutting down Mateen Cleaves," Ellerbe said. "That was the key to the game, without question."

Heading into Saturday's game, Cleaves was the only player in the Big Ten to be ranked in the conference's top 10 in scoring (tied for seventh), assists (first) and steals (fourth).

On the other side of the ball, Michigan's guards were not exactly stellar offensively - but they didn't have to be, thanks mostly to the Wolverines' size advantage in the post.

For Michigan State, however, the same could not be said. As Cleaves goes, so go the Spartans. And as Izzo pointed out, Cleaves "struggled a little bit" - so the Spartans did as well.

01-12-98