By Dick Vitale Special to ESPN.com Mateen, Mateen, Mateen. I can't sing the praises enough of this outstanding leader. I felt Cleaves' performance in the first half of Monday night's championship game was as good as I have seen in a long, long time.
As soon as Michigan State was sent to the locker room by Duke in Tropicana Field at last year's Final Four, that's when Tom Izzo knew what it would take to get his Spartans ready for the golden moment this time around. What has happened this season in East Lansing really began with the events that night in the locker room in Florida. The Spartans received great news when Cleaves said no, no, no to the megabucks of the NBA, deciding to come back for his senior year. This passionate leader led the team to the winner's circle; you can throw away statistics when you look at his game. He has the unbelievable ability to make people around him better. He is such a fierce competitor and it becomes contagious to his teammates. When they rolled the balls out back in October, you knew that Michigan State was going to be the team to beat. I picked them to win it all in my preseason magazine. Then the Spartans played an unbelievable non-conference schedule, facing the likes of Kentucky, Arizona, North Carolina, Texas and Kansas. It really prepared them for their second phase, the Big Ten conference schedule and then the league tournament. Michigan State played against the best. I felt this year the Big Ten conference was the premier one in the nation. The elite of the elite were the Spartans. Then there was the journey through the NCAA Tournament. Valparaiso, Utah, Syracuse, Iowa State, Wisconsin and then Monday over Florida. That's not an easy road, baby! Think about the comeback against Syracuse, down 14 in the second half. Or what about the rally against Iowa State, a team which I felt deserved a No. 1 seed. It was a great, great run. Izzo's team is like a great, great family. We heard all about the depth of Florida, the bench strength, the 3-point shooting. Guess what; it all belonged to the Spartans on Monday night. Let's give credit to Florida for a great run. Billy "The Kid" Donovan has a lot to be proud of. His team features a total of 10 freshmen and sophomores, and the future is bright down in Gainesville. However, on Monday night, the celebration was in East Lansing. |
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