1978–79 Michigan State Spartans men's basketball team

American college basketball season

1978–79 Michigan State Spartans men's basketball

NCAA tournament National Champions Big Ten champions Far West Classic champions
National Championship Game, W 75-64 vs. Indiana State
Conference	Big Ten Conference
Ranking
Coaches	No. 4
AP	No. 3
Record	26–6 (13–5 Big Ten)
Head coach	Jud Heathcote (3rd season)
Assistant coaches	Bill Berry Fred Paulsen Dave Harshman
Captains	Earvin Johnson Greg Kelser
Home arena	Jenison Fieldhouse
Seasons ← 1977–78 1979–80 →

1978–79 Big Ten Conference men's basketball standings
v t e	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
No. 3 Michigan State	13	–	5	.722	26	–	6	.813
No. 15 Purdue	13	–	5	.722	27	–	8	.771
No. 20 Iowa	13	–	5	.722	20	–	8	.714
Ohio State	12	–	6	.667	19	–	12	.613
Indiana	10	–	8	.556	22	–	12	.647
Michigan	8	–	10	.444	15	–	12	.556
Illinois	7	–	11	.389	19	–	11	.633
Wisconsin	6	–	12	.333	12	–	15	.444
Minnesota	6	–	12	.333	11	–	16	.407
Northwestern	2	–	16	.111	6	–	21	.222

Rankings from AP Poll

The 1978–79 Michigan State Spartans men's basketball team represented Michigan State University in the 1978–79 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Spartans were coached by Jud Heathcote in his third year and played their home games at Jenison Field House in East Lansing, Michigan. They were members of the Big Ten Conference. The Spartans finished the season 26–6, 13–5 in Big Ten play to earn a share of the Big Ten championship. They received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament as the No. 2 seed in the Mideast region. They defeated Lamar, LSU, and No. 1-seeded Notre Dame to advance to the Final Four, only the school's second trip to the Final Four. They defeated Penn to advance to the national championship game where they defeated Indiana State to win the school's first national championship in basketball.

Previous season

The Spartans finished the 1977–78 season 25–5, 15–3 in Big Ten play to win the Big Ten championship. They beat Providence in the first round of the NCAA tournament and Western Kentucky in the Mideast Regional semifinal. However, they lost to Kentucky in the Regional Final.

Season summary

MSU was led by star sophomore, Earvin "Magic" Johnson (16.1 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 8.2 assists per game), senior Greg Kelser (18.1 points and 8.5 rebounds per game), and sophomore Jay Vincent (13.7 points and 5.6 rebounds per game).^[1] The Spartans started the season well, finishing the non-conference season with an 8–1 record including a loss to No. 13 ranked North Carolina. They entered conference play as the No. 1-ranked team in the country.

After winning their first two conference games, they lost four of their next six games to fall to a 4–4 record in the Big Ten, trailing first-place Ohio State by four games in the standings. However, Michigan State then won their next 10 games with wins over No. 7 Ohio State, at No. 15 Iowa, at No. 13 Ohio State, and No. 18 Purdue. A loss on the final day of the season to Wisconsin resulted in the Spartans slipping into a tie for the Big Ten championship with Iowa and Purdue. MSU received a bid to the NCAA tournament because of a better head-to-head performance against Big Ten rivals and a superior overall record (21–6).^[2] The Spartans finished the season ranked No. 3 in the country.

Michigan State advanced to the Final Four by defeating Lamar, LSU and No. 1-seeded Notre Dame. In the Final Four, the second Final Four appearance in school history, they faced Penn, blowing them out 101–67 to earn a trip to the Championship. There, the Spartans faced No. 1-ranked and undefeated Indiana State led by senior Larry Bird. In what was the most-watched college basketball game ever, Michigan State defeated Indiana State 75–64 to win the school's first ever basketball National Championship.^[3] Magic Johnson was voted Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four.

After two years in college, in which he averaged 17.1 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 7.9 assists per game, Johnson declared for the 1979 NBA draft.^[4]

Roster and stats

1978–79 Michigan State Spartans men's basketball team
No	Name	Pos	Year	Height	Pts	Reb	Ast
32	Gregory Kelser	F	SR	6–7	18.1	8.5	1.5
33	Earvin Johnson	G	SO	6–8	16.1	7.4	8.2
31	Jay Vincent	C	SO	6–8	13.7	5.6	1.4
15	Ron Charles	F	JR	6–7	8.8	4.7	0.4
11	Terry Donnelly	G	JR	6–2	6.5	1.4	2.1
12	Mike Brkovich	F	SO	6–4	6.5	1.6	1.0
35	Rob Gonzalez	F	FR	6–7	1.5	0.8	1.0
25	Gerald Busby	F	FR	6–4	2.3	0.9	0.2
10	Greg Lloyd	G	FR	6–1	1.2	0.4	0.3
23	Mike Longaker	G	FR	6–1	1.3	0.5	0.0
42	Rich Kaye	F	SO	6–7	0.9	0.2	0.0
21	Don Brkovich	F	FR	6–6	0.3	0.2	0.0
43	Gerald Gilkie	F	SO	6–7	1.0	1.0	0.0
24	Jaime Hufffman	G	SO	6–3	0.3	0.5	0.0

Source^[5]^[6]

Schedule and results

Date time, TV	Rank^#	Opponent^#	Result	Record	Site city, state
Regular season
Nov 27, 1978*	No. 7	Central Michigan	W 71–54	1–0	Jenison Field House East Lansing, Michigan
Dec. 9, 1978*	No. 4	Cal State Fullerton	W 92–89	2–0	Jenison Field House East Lansing, Michigan
Dec 13, 1978*	No. 3	at Western Michigan	W 109–69	3–0	University Arena Kalamazoo, Michigan
Dec 16, 1978*	No. 3	at No. 13 North Carolina	L 69–70	3–1	Carmichael Auditorium Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Dec 19, 1978*	No. 3	Cincinnati	W 63–52	4–1	Pontiac Silverdome Pontiac, Michigan
Dec 28, 1978*	No. 4	vs. Washington State Far West Classic	W 98–52	5–1	Memorial Coliseum Portland, Oregon
Dec 29, 1978*	No. 4	at Oregon State Far West Classic championship	W 65–57	6–1	Memorial Coliseum Portland, Oregon
Dec 30, 1978*	No. 4	vs. Indiana	W 74–57	7–1	Memorial Coliseum Portland, Oregon
Jan 4, 1979	No. 1	Wisconsin	W 84–55	8–1 (1–0)	Jenison Field House East Lansing, Michigan
Jan 6, 1979	No. 1	Minnesota	W 69–62	9–1 (2–0)	Jenison Field House East Lansing, Michigan
Jan 11, 1979	No. 1	at No. 4 Illinois	L 55–57	9–2 (2–1)	Assembly Hall Champaign, Illinois
Jan 13, 1979	No. 1	at Purdue	L 50–52	9–3 (2–2)	Mackey Arena West Lafayette, Indiana
Jan 18, 1979	No. 6	Indiana	W 82–58	10–3 (3–2)	Jenison Field House East Lansing, Michigan
Jan 20, 1979	No. 6	Iowa	W 83–72 ^OT	11–3 (4–2)	Jenison Field House East Lansing, Michigan
Jan 25, 1979	No. 4	at Michigan Rivalry	L 48–49	11–4 (4–3)	Crisler Arena Ann Arbor, Michigan
Jan 27, 1979	No. 4	at Northwestern	L 65–83	11–5 (4–4)	Welsh–Ryan Arena Evanston, Illinois
Feb 1, 1979	No. 14	No. 7 Ohio State	W 84–79 ^OT	12–5 (5–4)	Jenison Field House East Lansing, Michigan
Feb 3, 1979	No. 14	Northwestern	W 61–50	13–5 (6–4)	Jenison Field House East Lansing, Michigan
Feb 4, 1979*	No. 14	Kansas	W 85–61	14–5	Jenison Field House East Lansing, Michigan
Feb 8, 1979	No. 10	at No. 15 Iowa	W 60–57	15–5 (7–4)	Iowa Field House Iowa City, Iowa
Feb 10, 1979	No. 10	at No. 13 Ohio State	W 73–57	16–5 (8–4)	St. John Arena Columbus, Ohio
Feb 15, 1979	No. 8	at Indiana	W 59–47	17–5 (9–4)	Assembly Hall Bloomington, Indiana
Feb 17, 1979	No. 8	Michigan Rivalry	W 80–57	18–5 (10–4)	Jenison Field House East Lansing, Michigan
Feb 22, 1979	No. 7	No. 18 Purdue	W 73–67	19–5 (11–4)	Jenison Field House East Lansing, Michigan
Feb 24, 1979	No. 4	Illinois	W 76–62	20–5 (12–4)	Jenison Field House East Lansing, Michigan
Mar 1, 1979	No. 4	at Minnesota	W 76–63	21–5 (13–4)	Williams Arena Minneapolis, Minnesota
Mar 3, 1979	No. 4	at Wisconsin	L 81–83	21–6 (13–5)	Wisconsin Field House Madison, Wisconsin
NCAA Tournament
Mar 10, 1979*	(2 ME) No. 3	vs. (10 ME) Lamar Second Round	W 95–64	22–6	Murphy Center Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Mar 16, 1979*	(2 ME) No. 3	vs. (3 ME) No. 7 LSU Regional semifinal	W 87–71	23–6	Market Square Arena Indianapolis, Indiana
Mar 18, 1979*	(2 ME) No. 3	vs. (1 ME) No. 4 Notre Dame Regional Final	W 80–68	24–6	Market Square Arena Indianapolis, Indiana
Mar 22, 1979*	(2 ME) No. 3	vs. (9 E) No. 14 Penn Final Four	W 101–67	25–6	Special Events Center Salt Lake City
Mar 26, 1979*	(2 ME) No. 3	vs. (1 MW) No. 1 Indiana State National Championship	W 75–64	26–6	Special Events Center Salt Lake City
*Non-conference game. ^#Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. ME=MidEast Region. Source^[7]

Rankings

Ranking movements
**Legend:** ██ Increase in ranking ██ Decrease in ranking
— = Not ranked
	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	Final
AP	7	7	4	3	5	4	1	1	6	4	15	10	8	7	4	4	3
Coaches	4	—	—	3	4	4	1	1	6	4	13	9	8	8	4	4	Not released

^Coaches did not release week 1 or week 2 polls.

Awards and honors

Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Consensus All-American teams
Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Chicago Tribune Silver Basketball
Earvin "Magic" Johnson, All-Big Ten First Team
Gregory Kelser, All-Big Ten First Team

Team players drafted into the NBA

Year	Round	Pick	Player	NBA Team
1979	1	1	Magic Johnson	Los Angeles Lakers
1979	1	4	Greg Kelser	Detroit Pistons
1980	4	74	Ron Charles	Chicago Bulls
1981	2	24	Jay Vincent	Dallas Mavericks
1981	8	181	Mike Brkovich	Milwaukee Bucks

Source^[8] ^[9] ^[10]

References

^ "1979 Michigan State Spartans". College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com. Retrieved March 23, 2016.
^ Halls, Bill (March 21, 1989). "Magic Moment: Ten years later, Johnson vs. Bird still special". The Detroit News. p. 1E, 7E.
^ Katz, Andy. "From coast to coast, a magical pair". ESPN. Retrieved May 6, 2008.
^ "Magic Johnson Statistics". Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on September 12, 2007. Retrieved September 13, 2007.
^ "1978-79 Michigan State Spartans Roster and Stats".
^ "16-17 Michigan State Spartans" (PDF). Michigan State University. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 15, 2019. Retrieved April 16, 2022.
^ "1978-79 Michigan State Spartans Schedule and Results".
^ "1979 NBA Draft on databaseBasketball.com". Archived from the original on May 20, 2011. Retrieved March 25, 2011.
^ "1980 NBA draft".
^ "1981 NBA draft".

v t e Michigan State Spartans men's basketball 1978–79 NCAA champions
11 Terry Donnelly 12 Mike Brkovich 15 Ron Charles 21 Don Brkovich 31 Jay Vincent 32 Greg Kelser 33 Earvin Johnson (MOP) 35 Rob Gonzalez 42 Rich Kaye Head coach Jud Heathcote Assistant coach Bill Berry

v t e Michigan State Spartans men's basketball
Venues	Armory (1899–1918) IM Circle (1918–1930) Demonstration Hall (1930–1940) Jenison Fieldhouse (1940–1989) Breslin Student Events Center (1989–present)
Rivalries	Michigan
Culture & lore	Basketbowl Champions Classic "The Flintstones" Izzone Michigan State University student riots
People	Head coaches NBA players Statistical leaders
Seasons	List of seasons 1898–99 1899–1900 1900–01 1901–02 1902–03 1903–04 1904–05 1905–06 1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–10 1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024-25
NCAA national championships in bold; NCAA Final Four appearances in italics

v t e NCAA Division I men's basketball champions
1939 Oregon 1940 Indiana 1941 Wisconsin 1942 Stanford 1943 Wyoming 1944 Utah 1945 Oklahoma A&M 1946 Oklahoma A&M 1947 Holy Cross 1948 Kentucky 1949 Kentucky 1950 CCNY 1951 Kentucky 1952 Kansas 1953 Indiana 1954 La Salle 1955 San Francisco 1956 San Francisco 1957 North Carolina 1958 Kentucky 1959 California 1960 Ohio State 1961 Cincinnati 1962 Cincinnati 1963 Loyola (IL) 1964 UCLA 1965 UCLA 1966 Texas Western 1967 UCLA 1968 UCLA 1969 UCLA 1970 UCLA 1971 UCLA 1972 UCLA 1973 UCLA 1974 NC State 1975 UCLA 1976 Indiana 1977 Marquette 1978 Kentucky 1979 Michigan State 1980 Louisville 1981 Indiana 1982 North Carolina 1983 NC State 1984 Georgetown 1985 Villanova 1986 Louisville 1987 Indiana 1988 Kansas 1989 Michigan 1990 UNLV 1991 Duke 1992 Duke 1993 North Carolina 1994 Arkansas 1995 UCLA 1996 Kentucky 1997 Arizona 1998 Kentucky 1999 Connecticut 2000 Michigan State 2001 Duke 2002 Maryland 2003 Syracuse 2004 Connecticut 2005 North Carolina 2006 Florida 2007 Florida 2008 Kansas 2009 North Carolina 2010 Duke 2011 Connecticut 2012 Kentucky 2013 Louisville (Vacated) 2014 UConn 2015 Duke 2016 Villanova 2017 North Carolina 2018 Villanova 2019 Virginia 2020 No tournament 2021 Baylor 2022 Kansas 2023 UConn 2024 UConn

NCAA Division I men's basketball champions