Mateen Cleaves: Former Michigan State Star Resurfaces with Appearance on ESPN

Whoever thought it would be a good idea to put Mateen Cleaves on College GameDay is an absolute genius.

College GameDay was in East Lansing today for the Wisconsin versus Michigan State matchup, so they decided to bring out former Spartan point guard Mateen Cleeves. He even made some predictions for this weekend

Honestly, it seems like it's been forever since Cleaves' name has been dropped outside the state of Michigan. The former MSU star was drafted by the Detroit Pistons in the first round in 2000 before popping around the league for six years.

He retired after the 2008-2009 season and hasn't been heard from on the national stage since that time.

Come to find out, Cleaves has a lot of free time right now. He is working for Fox Sports Detroit, but with the NBA in the midst of a lockout, he doesn't have much analysis to breakdown.

Who doesn't want to see Cleaves be successful in broadcasting? Cleaves was awesome to watch on the court when he was at Michigan State, and he has a ton of personality.

When he first landed the job with Fox Sports, he opted to hire a coach to help him reach his potential. In a conversation with Eric Woodyard of the Flint Journal, Cleaves' coach Marc Watts spoke about helping Cleeves improve on television.

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One of things that you can make a mistake at is overcoaching someone. I wanted some of the raw aspects of Mateen to stay. We had to find out who he wanted to be as a basketball analyst and after we defined what style he wanted to do, we kind of agreed that this was it as far as training goes. Now, the best training he gets is when he’s on the desk on a nightly basis.

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Let's hope this guy's broadcasting career shoots through the roof. He wasn't the best NBA player, but he definitely knows what he's talking about and knows the game better than most players. While he lacks in talent, he makes up for it with his brain, which should translate well to the broadcasting arena.