On This Date: Michigan State Wins 1979 NCAA Title

East Lansing, Mich. – Michigan State great Earvin "Magic" Johnson appeared on Get Up with Mike Greenberg on Thursday morning, March 26, celebrating the 41-year anniversary of the men's basketball team's national championship in 1979.

"The first thing is that Larry Bird led his team to a 33-0 season," Johnson said on Get Up with Greenberg. "We struggled at the beginning of the Big 10 but we came on strong at the end and we won, I think, 10-straight games.

"We felt like, 'Wow, we're watching this team and this player named Larry Bird play, and then we got hot and all of a sudden they were upsetting and beating everyone in the NCAA tournament and we were doing the same thing. Not too many times do the two best teams in college basketball meet for the championship and the two best players meet at the same time."

The Spartans opened their championship run with a 95-64 pounding of Lamar, led by Johnson's triple-double and Greg Kelser's 31 points. After defeating LSU, MSU met up with top seed Notre Dame in the Regional Final in what was being called the game to decide the NCAA Championship. The Spartans jumped out to a big lead early en route to an 80-68 victory. Kelser led the way with 34 points, earning All-Region MVP honors, while Johnson joined him on the All-Regional Team.

In the Final Four, the Spartans took on Pennsylvania, who entered the tournament as a nine seed. Johnson recorded his second triple-double of the tournament as MSU led 50-17 at the half, finishing with a tournament team record of 101 points in a 101-67 win.

"There was a buildup once the NCAA Tournament started and TV , NBC and all that, were hoping that Indiana State and Michigan State would meet for the championship game and that's exactly what happened," Johnson said. "We were scared to death because in the semifinals we blew out Penn, but Larry Bird went off on DePaul, I think he only missed four shots in that game and scored 36 or 38 points. And we were like, this dude is for real. What are we going to have to do to stop him? And we tried to contain him the best we could and we ended up winning the game."

In the championship game, the Spartans took on No. 1-ranked and unbeaten Indiana State, led by Bird. The Spartans jumped out to a big first-half lead on their way to capturing the school's first National Championship, 75-64. Kelser and Johnson were both named to the All-Tournament Team, while Johnson was named Most Outstanding Player and earned a spot on the All-Decade Team.

"We felt like two stars are better than one," Johnson said. "Greg Kelser was an incredible college basketball player and we felt that he was going to be the difference."
The 1979 NCAA Championship is considered one of the great games in tournament history and a game that helped transform basketball, as Johnson and Bird moved on to the NBA that year.

"We didn't have an idea that it was going to be that big," Johnson said. "We felt, we knew and I knew it was big. Larry Bird was College Player of the Year and I came in second, so you've got the two best players playing and the two best teams at that time. They beat everyone that was in front of them and we did the same thing.

"Notre Dame was a big team at the time and we beat them. A lot of people thought Notre Dame could win the NCAA Championship. People forget they had five or six pros on that team, but we took care of business. We understood how big it got because they always featured Bird vs. Magic, and neither one of us let the college baskeball fans down because we had great years that year."

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