The 1989–90 Michigan State Spartans men's basketball team represented

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...

in the

1989–90 NCAA Division I men's basketball season The 1989–90 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began in November 1989 and ended with the Final Four at McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, Colorado on April 2, 1990. The UNLV Runnin' Rebels won their first NCAA national championship with a ...

. The team played their home games at newly-opened

Breslin Center The Jack Breslin Student Events Center is a multi-purpose arena at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. The arena opened in 1989, and is named for Jack Breslin, MSU alumnus, former athlete and administrator, who first began pus ...

East Lansing, Michigan East Lansing is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. Most of the city lies within Ingham County, although a small portion extends north into Clinton County. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 47,741. The city is located immediate ...

and were members of the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...

. They were coached by

Jud Heathcote George Melvin "Jud" Heathcote (May 27, 1927 – August 28, 2017) was an American basketball player and coach. He was a college basketball head coach for 24 seasons: five at the Montana Grizzlies basketball, University of Montana and nineteen ...

in his 14th year at Michigan State. The Spartans finished the season with a record of 28–6, 15–3 to win the Big Ten championship by two games. As the No. 3-ranked team in the country, they received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament as the No. 1 seed in the Southeast region. In the first round, they narrowly avoided becoming the first No. 1 seed to lose a No. 16 seed, beating

Murray State Murray State University (MSU) is a public university in Murray, Kentucky, in the Southern United States. In addition to the main campus in Calloway County in southwestern Kentucky, Murray State operates extended campuses offering upper-level an ...

in overtime. They then defeated

UC Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an independent teachers college, UCSB joined ...

in the second round to earn a trip to the Sweet Sixteen, their first trip since

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. ** Spain and Portugal en ...

. There they lost in overtime to

Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Established in 1885, it has the lar ...

. Ken Redfield was named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year.

Previous season

The

Spartans Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the valley of Evrotas river in Laconia, in southeastern P ...

finished the 1988–89 season 18–15, 6–12 to finish in eighth place in Big Ten play. Michigan State received a bid to the

National Invitation Tournament The National Invitation Tournament (NIT) is an annual men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Since 2023, all rounds of the tournament are played at various sites across the country whi ...

. There the Spartans beat

Kent State Kent State University (KSU) is a public research university in Kent, Ohio, United States. The university includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio located in Ashtabula, Burton, East Liverpool, Jackson Township, New Philadelphia, ...

Wichita State Wichita State University (WSU) is a public university, public research university in Wichita, Kansas, United States. It is governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The university offers more than 60 undergraduate degree programs in more than 200 ...

, and Villanova to reach the final four at

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as the Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh and Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eig ...

. In the semifinals, they lost to Saint Louis before losing to UAB in the third-place game.

Season summary

The Spartans were led by junior Steve Smith (20.2 points and 7.0 rebounds, and 4.8 assists per game), senior Kirk Manns (15.5 points per game), and Ken Redfield (11.6 points per game). The team also featured sophomore Mark Montgomery and freshman

Dwayne Stephens Dwayne Jerome Stephens (born July 19, 1971) is an American basketball coach who is currently the men's head coach for the Western Michigan Broncos. Previously, he was an assistant and associate head coach at Michigan State for 19 years. Playing ...

who would both later become assistant coaches at Michigan State under

Tom Izzo Thomas Michael Izzo (, ; born January 30, 1955) is an American college basketball coach who has been the head coach at Michigan State University since 1995. On April 4, 2016, Izzo was elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Izzo has le ...

. MSU began their season by traveling to Alaska to participate in the

Great Alaska Shootout The Great Alaska Shootout is an annual women's college basketball tournament in Anchorage, Alaska that features host University of Alaska Anchorage and three visiting NCAA Division I teams. The four-team tournament resumed in 2022 following a ...

. There, they defeated Auburn,

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

, and

Kansas State Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public inst ...

to capture the Shootout championship. They suffered their first loss of the season at

UIC UIC may refer to: Computing * Uranium Information Centre, a defunct website sponsored by uranium mining companies * User identification code, the user number of the Files-11 file system in the RSX-11 operating system Education * University of Ill ...

after being ranked for the first time that season. Two games later, the Spartans lost at Breslin Center to

Bowling Green A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls. Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep ...

. They finished their non-conference schedule with an 11–2 record. Michigan State started the Big Ten season 3–0 before losing to No. 7

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

on the road. In a four-game stretch against ranked teams, the Spartans defeated No. 12

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

in Bloomington, but lost to rival No. 7

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

at home. A loss to No. 19

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

preceded a win over No. 8

Purdue Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donat ...

and left the Spartans at 6–3 in the Big Ten. Following the victory over Purdue, MSU entered the AP rankings at No. 23. The Spartans won their remaining nine games to finish the season on a 10-game winning streak. The streak included wins over No. 15 Illinois, No. 25 Indiana, No. 8 Michigan, No. 17 Minnesota, and No. 10 Purdue in a six-game stretch. The finish gave the Spartans the Big Ten championship by two games over Purdue with a 15–3 record, and they finished the season ranked No. 3 in the country. The Spartans received the Big Ten's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament as a No. 1 seed. In the Tournament, the Spartans narrowly defeated 16th-seeded Murray State, led by

Popeye Jones Ronald Jerome "Popeye" Jones (born June 17, 1970) is an American professional basketball coach and former player who most recently served as an assistant coach for the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). College career B ...

, in overtime to avoid becoming the only No. 1 seed to lose to a 16 seed. They again narrowly defeated ninth-seeded UC Santa Barbara in the second round by four points to advance to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 1986. In the Sweet Sixteen, the Spartans 12-game winning streak came to end as they lost to fourth-seeded Georgia Tech. The game featured a controversial last second basket by Tech's Kenny Anderson to force overtime where the Spartans fell 81–80.

Roster and statistics

Source

Schedule and results

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Rankings

Source.

Awards and honors

* Steve Smith – All-Big Ten First Team

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1989-90 Michigan State Spartans Men's Basketball Team Michigan State Spartans men's basketball seasons

Michigan State Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the ...

Michigan State Spartans men's b Michigan State Spartans men's b