Spartans’ Drive to Title Wasn’t on Easy Street

Still?

The Michigan State Spartans still don’t have it easy?

Not in their 1999-2000 season and not on their big night.

They went over and through the vaunted Florida press Monday in the RCA Dome to win their first NCAA title since 1979 with an 89-76 victory that capped a childhood-to-championship success story for stars and longtime friends Mateen Cleaves and Morris Peterson.

Michigan State had survived--barely at times--while playing the first 13 games of the season without the injured Cleaves, ran the gantlet of the very tough Big Ten, and was the only regional top-seeded team to make it to the Final Four. Targets and bandages everywhere, from November to April.

And now the Spartans had reached the clearing, finally. The season ended in the greatest of ways, a resounding victory over Florida. The depth of their heart over the depth of the Gators’ bench.

Yet, there was Cleaves in the aftermath, trying to work his way back from the postgame press conference to rejoin the locker room celebration. Trying to go through the heavy revolving door that led to the hallway on crutches, with his right ankle heavily wrapped.

As if there was any other way.

“I think that’s what makes this championship all the more special,” said Mike Chappell, a reserve forward. “Dealing with the adversity. Coming into the season No. 1, and losing Mateen, then dropping so far in the polls. I think that made us pull together. Then we get Mateen back and things start clicking. We get in the tournament, and we get in the toughest region. This team has responded to adversity all year.”

Because there was always a rescue. Late Monday night, it was the golf cart waiting for Cleaves--and the net around his neck--on the other side of that revolving door, to take him the final 50 yards to the locker room. Other times, it was another kind of drive.

Michigan State trailed Utah in the second half in the round of 32 in Cleveland and came back to win. It trailed Syracuse by 14 in the second half in the Sweet 16 in Auburn Hills, Mich., and came back to win by 17. It trailed dangerous Iowa State two days later by seven points with 5:49 left and and came back to win by 11. Wisconsin turned Saturday’s semifinal into a meat grinder.

Many predicaments. One result. Different characters.

Charlie Bell, a shooting guard, played the point when Cleaves was sidelined most of the nonconference schedule because of a broken foot. In the championship game, Bell had eight rebounds--more than all but one Florida player--five assists and two steals.

Forward A.J. Granger, another role player, hammered away inside to get nine rebounds and was graceful outside with three three-point baskets. He had 19 points.

But neither would overshadow Peterson, the best player, and Cleaves, the most important player because of his leadership and heart. To end their season and Michigan State careers, Cleaves had 18 points on seven-of-11 shooting and suffered an sprained ankle that kept him out of the game four minutes in the second half--a time in which the scrappy Spartans increased their lead--while Peterson had a team-high 21 points. Fifteen of those came in the second half, meaning 75 of his 105 points in a standout tournament came after halftime, usually with the game on the line--the tough times when he, Cleaves and Michigan State always came through in the tournament.