They call him "Cowboy."
Not because junior center Jason Andreas grew up on a farm in Sugarcreek, Ohio. And not because he fixes stickers of a cowboy silhouette to the bottom of his game shoes.
They call him that for a different reason.
It's what Mateen called him.
When the MSU men's basketball team was announced to fans and media at Midnight Madness in 1999, Andreas was a fledgling freshman on an experienced senior squad. He was stuck in the thick of the Mateen Cleaves, Morris Peterson and A.J. Granger years, and wanted to make a name for himself.
So, as the rest of the players were individually announced to a song of their choice, Andreas broke away from the pack of rap-song introductions and queued up "Cowboy" by Kid Rock. Cleaves liked it enough to start calling Andreas "Cowboy," and the name stuck.
People listened to Mateen Cleaves. A natural floor leader and clutch performer, he had been to battle before in the Big Ten, the Big Ten Tournament and the NCAAs. He's one of the best leaders ever in the annals of Spartan history, and as time pushes his years further and further away from MSU basketball, the heat will be on Andreas to remind his teammates of that.
Next season, Andreas will be the last link to the 2000 National Championship team. He was redshirted the championship season as a freshman, but still was right there with the team members that MSU fans are now left to reminisce about. He practiced day-in and day-out with them, sharing both the champions' locker room and the wisdom they imparted on the younger players.
Next season, it's Andreas' turn to share what he learned from them.
"It'll be a valuable part of the team next year," Andreas said. "It's something I can bring to the table. My role next year is being able to be more of a leader in the aspect of telling them what it used to be like, showing them what it used to be like and just sharing my knowledge.
"I went through the whole year with them. I practiced every day with them, went to the Final Four and won two Big Ten championships. That's some valuable information right there."
More like invaluable. As MSU's squad goes younger and younger with sophomores and freshmen, leadership is another gray hair in Izzo's weary head. Two seasons removed from a Big Ten title, the caliber of senior leadership inside Breslin Center is dwindling with the years.
Senior leadership. Remember that? Bless Aloysius Anagonye. He's played his heart out for four years. He threw the elbows, took the shots in the mouth and dealt out his own. And thank Adam Ballinger if you see him around campus. He didn't deserve his slump this season and he gave everything he had.
It just wasn't enough from them. Leaders have it encoded into their DNA. Some people are ready to lead out of the womb.
"The way basketball's going now, sometimes team leadership is nothing more than who's ready to lead at that time," Anagonye quipped. "Mateen was a great leader when he was a sophomore, and he started winning when he was a junior."
Well, the grace period is starting to get old. Next year we'll see what the new crop is made of.
It's a new team, a new era now. Izzo handed the car keys to Chris Hill, Alan Anderson and Kelvin Torbert this season, and the youngsters are in the driver's seat.
"I told them, 'What do you want your legacy to be?'" Izzo said. "It's their call. This is their legacy. It's their team."
Cowboy can remind everyone of Cleaves, Mo-Pete and A.J. until he's blue in the face, but is Flintstone lore falling on deaf ears in East Lansing?
Is the magic that Cleaves brought back to MSU still even around? The Izzone says yes, and the die-hards say yes, but take a grain of salt and reassess after this weekend's results in the tournament.
You wouldn't want Cowboy to ride off into the sunset thinking he didn't do his job would you?
Patrick Walters is a State News men's basketball reporter. He's not a cynic. Sometimes. Seriously. He can be reached at walter88@msu.edu.
