Hello and welcome to the official start of the SpartansWire Favorite Spartans of all Time Tournament. Sure, that’s a terrible name, but at this point, who cares? It’s a pandemic outside. Fictional bracket names don’t matter right now.
Today I’m going to lay out the Mateen Cleaves region, which is highlighted by number one seed–you guessed it–Mateen Cleaves. Players will be pitted against each other and the winner will be decided exclusively by fan vote.
You can vote on the Magic Johnson region here.
You can vote on the Kirk Cousins region here.
You can vote on the Draymond Green region here.
Here’s the full region for a quick refresher.
As with every region, there are a number of big names in the bracket without much separating the top seeds from the lower seeds.
Let’s get to the matchups!
1. Mateen Cleaves vs. 16. Percy Snow
Our top seed is the quintessential Tom Izzo point guard Mateen Cleaves. Pick a superlative to describe what Tom Izzo needs in his floor general and it all stems back to Cleaves. He was the leader of the 2000 national championship team and is the name every ball handler that steps foot in the Breslin Center gets compared to. I could write 1,000 words on Cleaves’ individual and team accomplishments, but I don’t really think I need to.
He takes on Percy Snow, who is wildly under-seeded. Really though, this entire tournament is full of under-seeded people. There’s only so many seeds to go around and Snow only got one nomination. He was player of the game in the 1988 Rose Bowl and won both the Butkus Award and Lombardi Award. Only four college football players in history can say that. He’s going to lose this matchup, but he doesn’t deserve to go out in the first round of the tournament. That’s just how the cookie crumbles.
2. Cassius Winston vs. 15. Zach Randolph
There’s a real chance Cassius Winston could have been the No. 1 overall seed in the entire tournament had COVID-19 not shown up. Had MSU won the national title this season, I’d argue Cassius Winston would have been the greatest Michigan State basketball player of all time. In reality, he was robbed of that opportunity and will have to settle for being one of the greatest and most beloved with his number heading up to the Breslin Center rafters in the near future.
He takes on Zach Randolph, AKA Z-Bo. Had Z-Bo stayed at MSU for more than one year he’s be way higher on this list. It’s a testament to how beloved he is by MSU fans that he’s on here despite that fact. As rugged as rugged gets on the basketball court, Randolph was a stud during his one season at Michigan State and turned to the NBA where he went on to have a 19-year career. Michigan State fans love to claim Z-Bo as one of their own.
3. Drew Stanton vs. 14. Scott Skiles
I was surprised at how many people nominated Drew Stanton, which is why he ended up as a three seed. Stanton was one of the lone bright spots of a tough stretch of Michigan State football. Stanton filled the stat sheet with both his arm and his legs during his time at MSU. His teams never had a winning record while Stanton was the starter, but it certainly wasn’t all his fault. And I think that’s why MSU fans really like him.
Stanton’s opponent is another under-seeded guy in Scott Skiles. Skiles was an absolute bucket–averaging 27.4 points per game his senior season. He also, averaged 5.5 assists per game over his career. The problem is he only made the NCAA Tournament twice in his career and made it out of the first round just one time, a trip to the Sweet 16 his senior year. Not Skiles’ fault, but I’m sure that’s why his time at MSU isn’t remembered as fondly as it should be.
4. Le’Veon Bell vs. 13. Matt Trannon
Le’Veon Bell got to be a top player on some really good teams AND a lone bright spot on a mediocre team. He was part of a committee in 2010 when MSU won 11 games and then the go-to guy the next year when MSU won 11 games again. Then it fell apart a bit in 201 and thank god Le’Veon was still on campus, because the MSU offense was going nowhere fast without him. He took his college career and translated it to a very successful run in the NFL where he has been one of the best running backs in the league for the last seven years.
Two-sport star Matt Trannon is his opponent. Trannon never had eye-popping numbers in either football or basketball, but it was so impressive that he was able to play both sports at a high level. He was on the 2005 team that made a run to the Final Four and had 500+ receiving yards and four touchdowns that fall. That’s really cool.
5. Charlie Bell vs. 12. Trae Waynes
The youngest of the Flintstones, Charlie Bell was the defensive anchor of three straight Final Four teams, including the 2000 national championship squad. He was the do-it-all Swiss Army Knife, able to get a bucket, grab a big rebound, and/or lock down an opposing team’s best player. Bell was an invaluable member of the best run of MSU hoops in school history.
He takes on the second half of the “No Fly Zone” cornerbacks. Trae Waynes went from an unheralded recruit to one of the top lockdown corners in all of college football. He was named to a handful of All-American lists his senior season and helped MSU to a 24-3 record in his two years as a starter. He was drafted 11th overall in the 2015 draft, the highest any MSU corner has been drafted in the modern era (since 1967).
6. Shawn Respert vs. 11. Jack Allen
The “Fire” to Eric Snow’s “Ice” Shawn Repsert was a walking bucket. He is MSU’s all-time leading scorer and is second all-time in Big Ten scoring. He won a ton of individual awards, including the Sporting News Player of the Year his senior season. Plus, he started the tradition of kissing the Spartan logo during senior day. Unfortunately Respert never once made it out of the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
He takes on Jack Allen, the beloved center during Mark Dantonio’s best stretch at Michigan State. Allen’s 47 starts rank second in school history and he won a ton of awards. He was a back-to-back All-American and first-team All-Big Ten his junior and senior seasons. It’s hard to become a fan favorite as a lineman, especially at center, but starting for four years and being the man in the middle for a Rose Bowl win, a Cotton Bowl win, and a College Football Playoff berth will do that for you.
7. Mike Sadler vs. 10. Muhsin Muhammad
Mike Sadler feels like another under-seeded guy. First, he was an absolutely outstanding punter and a legitimate weapon during Dantonio’s greatest years. Second, he was such a good and joyful guy, always having fun with coaches, teammates, and in the media. He was smart and funny and totally beloved. Plus, he had a knack for converting trick plays in big spots. His untimely death in 2016 shook Michigan State football to its core. He is remember as one of the best to ever punt at MSU and always a fan favorite.
Sadler takes on Muhsin Muhammad. Muhammad was a late bloomer, breaking out his senior season at MSU in 1995. Muhammad went from off the radar to a second round NFL pick with basically one year of production. He turned that into a successful 13-year NFL career where he was a two-time pro bowler and was first-team All-Pro in 2004. He’s probably seeded too high, but the NFL career buoys him.
8. Max Bullough vs. 9. Chuck Bullough
Choose your Bullough. Dad vs. son. Did I intentionally set this one up as an interesting first round matchup? Yes. Yes, I did. Like the NCAA selection committee, I am not immune to storylines. It’s Max vs. Chuck in the 8 vs. 9. Son vs. dad. Max was a multi-year captain at MSU and quarterbacked Mark Dantonio’s greatest defense in 2013. Of all the great middle linebackers to play at MSU under Dantonio, Bullough might be the gold standard.
His dad Chuck was no slouch on the football field. Bullough was an All-Big Ten and All-American in his day and holds the school record for most tackles in a season with an absurd 175 stops his senior season. The year before that he had 164 tackles, which is the third most in a single season in MSU history. Bullough was a standout on the 1990 Big Ten winning football team and has had a couple stints as a coach at MSU.
