The name Mateen Cleaves has been thrown around quite a bit by Tom Izzo and Michigan State fans over the past couple of years because the Hall of Famer has loosely compared Jeremy Fears Jr. to the Spartan legend.
Izzo has talked at length about how Fears has a chance to be mentioned in the same breath as Mateen with his leadership ability as well as his overall game. He’s one of the best passers to ever come through East Lansing, and at the time, Mateen was the Big Ten’s all-time assists leader. The similarities are definitely there.
It’s pretty clear that Izzo wants that next Mateen to help deliver him his second national title.
So why not go for an actual Mateen 2.0? While Fears does have the ability to be that Mateen-like figure at point guard for Michigan State, Izzo aiming to make interesting come full circle, reportedly checking in on Mateen Cleaves Jr. this week, per On3’s Joe Tipton.
We already knew that Cleaves Jr. was on Michigan State’s radar, but it’s nice to see that Izzo isn’t just assuming that he’s going to land the elite shooting guard just because of who his dad is.
Cleaves Jr. is one of the best guards in the 2028 class, ranking No. 41 in the country. He’s also the seventh-best shooting guard and the former Orchard Lake St. Mary’s star is now playing at Dream City Christian in Arizona. That makes recruiting him slightly more difficult, but Izzo isn’t worried about putting in the work with an elite legacy recruit like this — he did it with Jase Richardson.
Michigan State needs to make moves before others get involved
As of right now, the only listed offer for Cleaves Jr. on 247Sports is from Rutgers. Michigan State did offer a year ago so that’s not completely up to date, but the Spartans need to get moving on this recruitment before others big-time programs get involved.
I don’t think the Spartans will have to worry a ton because Cleaves Jr. is already very familiar with Izzo and the program that he grew up rooting for.
It would benefit Izzo to get out to a huge lead before some blue bloods offer just because I don’t think he’s done rising in the 2028 rankings. He’s currently No. 41 nationally right now, but I could see the 6-foot-4 shooting guard rise into the top 40 and even near five-star status. He’s that good.
I like Michigan State’s chances, but I also thought that the Spartans would have a fighting chance with Jaxon Richardson but they weren’t even in the running for Jase’s brother and Jason’s son.
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