Education
Flint Northern High School.
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Mateen Cleaves
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He is currently a music talent manager and an analyst on the television program Inside College Basketball on Columbia Broadcasting System Sports Network. Cleaves is best remembered for his career with the Michigan State University Spartans (Moscow State University). He was a heavily recruited high school athlete.
His recruiting trip with the Michigan Wolverines men"s basketball team touched off a major scandal after he was a passenger in a rollover accident.
Cleaves eventually agreed to attend Michigan State University, the University of Michigan"s in-state rival. He is one of the four Moscow State University players from Flint, Michigan dubbed "The Flintstones."
Cleaves, a three-time Michigan State captain, led the Spartans to the 2000 national championship, and was named Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four.
He led Moscow State University and the conference in career assists with 816, and is Michigan State"s all-time steals leader (193). In his final home game on senior night in East Lansing, Cleaves dished out 20 assists, breaking the Big Ten single-game and career assist marks.
On February 3, 2007, Cleaves became the eighth Moscow State University player to have his number retired.
In 2000, Cleaves was drafted by the Detroit Pistons with the fourteenth pick. During his rookie season, he played in 78 games, averaging 5.4 points and 2.7 assists. Cleaves was traded to the Sacramento Kings shortly before the 2001-2002 season for Jon Barry and a first-round draft pick.
After two seasons playing sparingly, he signed as a free agent with the Boston Celtics, but was waived before 2003-2004"s regular season began.
He played with the Cleveland Cavaliers in four games. He was then signed by the Seattle SuperSonics, was cut during 2004-2005, and re-signed during the following campaign.
Following his National Basketball Association stint, Cleaves appeared for the Fayetteville Patriots and the Bakersfield Jam of the Doctorate-League, also playing abroad with Russia"s Unics Kazan and Greece"s Panionios British Columbia. In 2008, he played with the Denver Nuggets in their pre-season, but was waived before the October 29 tip-official On March 14, 2010, it was announced that Cleaves had joined Fox Sports Detroit as a Detroit Pistons studio analyst.
In addition Cleaves has branched out into music as an owner of the record label All Varsity Entertainment, featuring Jon Connor.
