The 1990–91 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

1990–91 NCAA Division I men's basketball season The 1990–91 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began in November 1990 and ended with the Final Four at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis, Indiana on April 1, 1991. The Duke Blue Devils won their first NCAA national championship with a 72 ...

. The team played their home games at

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 15th year at Michigan State. The Spartans finished the season with a record of 19–11, 11–7 to finish in third place in Big Ten play. They received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament as a No. 5 seed in the Midwest region where they beat Green Bay on a buzzer beater by Steve Smith. In the Second Round, they lost to No. 10

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

in double overtime, 85–84. The game marked the end of First Team All-American senior Steve Smith's career at Michigan State.

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 1989–90 season with a record of 28–6, 15–3 to win the Big Ten Championship. Michigan State received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament as the No. 1 seed in the Southeast region. They beat

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 ...

and

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 ...

to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. There they were upset by

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 ...

in overtime.

Roster

Source

Schedule and results

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Rankings

Source.

Awards and honors

* Steve Smith – All-Big Ten First Team

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1990-91 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