Basketball to Retire Jay Vincent's Jersey
6/21/1999 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
January 7, 1999
EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan State basketball program will retire the jersey (#31) of former All-American Jay Vincent at halftime of this Saturday's (Jan. 9) game against Michigan. The retiring of the jersey will be held in conjunction with the 20th year recognition of the 1979 NCAA championship team.
Vincent, a native of Lansing, lettered at MSU from 1978-81 and closed out his career as the school's No. 2 all-time leading scorer with 1,914 points. In addition, Vincent, a two-time MSU Most Valuable Player, claimed third-team All-America honors on the 1981 Associated Press All-America Team. He captured the Big Ten scoring titles in both 1980 (22.1 ppg) and 1981 (24.1 ppg), making him at the time just the 11th player in conference history to bring home back-to-back scoring titles.
A first-team All-Big Ten selection on two occasions, Vincent was a model of offensive consistency, scoring 20 or more points on 46 occasions and closing out his career by scoring in double figures in 54 straight contests. He was a key member of two Spartan Big Ten championship teams and started all 27 regular-season games during the team's 1978-79 run to the national championship.
Following his collegiate career, he was a second-round pick of the Dallas Mavericks in the 1981 NBA draft. He enjoyed a nine-year career as a professional spending time with the Mavs, Denver, Washington, Philadelphia and San Antonio, averaging 13.8 points per contest.