1979 NCAA Division I basketball tournament
Season | 1978–79 | ||||
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Teams | 40 | ||||
Finals site | Special Events Center Salt Lake City, Utah |
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Champions | Michigan State (1st title, 1st title game, 2nd Final Four) |
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Runner-up | Indiana State (1st title game, 1st Final Four) |
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Semifinalists | |||||
Winning coach | Jud Heathcote (1st title) | ||||
MOP | Magic Johnson (Michigan State) | ||||
Attendance | 262,101 | ||||
Top scorer | Tony Price Penn (142 points) |
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The 1979 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament involved 40 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 9, 1979, and ended with the championship game on March 26 in Salt Lake City. A total of 40 games were played, including a national third place game.
Michigan State, coached by Jud Heathcote, won the national title with a 75-64 victory in the final game over Indiana State, coached by Bill Hodges. Indiana State came into the game without a loss all season, but couldn't win their final game. Magic Johnson of Michigan State was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. Michigan State's victory over Indiana State was its first over a number one ranked team, and remained its only victory over a number one ranked team until 2007 (Wisconsin).[1]
The final game marked the beginning of the rivalry between future Hall of Famers Johnson and Larry Bird. To this day, it remains the highest-rated game in the history of televised college basketball.[2] Both Johnson and Bird would enter the NBA in the fall of 1979, and the rivalry between them and their teams (respectively, the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics) was a major factor in the league's renaissance in the 1980s and 1990s. The game also led to the "modern era" of college basketball, as it introduced a nationwide audience to a sport that was once relegated to second-class status in the sports world.
With the loss in the championship game, Indiana State has finished as the National Runner-up in the NAIA (1946 and 1948), NCAA Division I (1979), and the NCAA Division II (1968) making them the only school to do so.
This was the first tournament in which all teams were seeded by the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee. The top six seeds in each regional received byes to the second round, while seeds 7-10 played in the first round. It is also notable as the last Final Four played in an on-campus arena, at the University of Utah. (The most recent tournament to be held on a university's premises (i.e. not on the university's main campus, but on a satellite or branch campus) was in 1983, as the University of New Mexico (UNM) hosted that year's tournament in The Pit (then officially known as University Arena), which is located on the UNM South Campus.) It has, however, been played in a team's regular off-campus home arena two times since then: in 1985 at Rupp Arena, Kentucky's home court, and in 1996 at Continental Airlines Arena, Seton Hall's home court. Given the use of domed stadiums for Final Fours for the foreseeable future, it is likely this will be the last Final Four on a college campus.
Contents
Locations
Region | Site | Other Locations |
---|---|---|
East | Greensboro, North Carolina | Providence, Rhode Island, Raleigh, North Carolina |
Mideast | Indianapolis, Indiana | Bloomington, Indiana, Murfreesboro, Tennessee |
Midwest | Cincinnati, Ohio | Dallas, Texas, Lawrence, Kansas |
West | Provo, Utah | Los Angeles, California, Tucson, Arizona |
Finals | Salt Lake City, Utah |
In the East, the Round of 32 was called Black Sunday because of Penn's upset of #1 North Carolina and St. John's upset of #2-seeded Duke, both in Raleigh. Penn went all the way to the Final Four before losing to eventual champion Michigan State. Both teams had to defeat higher-seeded opponents in the Round of 40 to have the chance to beat UNC and Duke. Penn beat three higher-seeded opponents to reach the Final Four, a feat which was later bettered in 1986 by LSU, 2006 by George Mason, and 2011 by Virginia Commonwealth, who each beat four higher-seeded opponents on the way to the Final Four.
Teams
Region | Seed | Team | Coach | Finished | Final Opponent | Score |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
East | ||||||
East | 1 | North Carolina | Dean Smith | Round of 32 | 9 Penn | L 72-71 |
East | 2 | Duke | Bill E. Foster | Round of 32 | 10 St. John's | L 80-78 |
East | 3 | Georgetown | John Thompson | Round of 32 | 6 Rutgers | L 64-58 |
East | 4 | Syracuse | Jim Boeheim | Sweet Sixteen | 9 Penn | L 84-76 |
East | 5 | Connecticut | Dom Perno | Round of 32 | 4 Syracuse | L 89-81 |
East | 6 | Rutgers | Tom Young | Sweet Sixteen | 10 St. John's | L 67-65 |
East | 7 | Temple | Don Casey | Round of 40 | 10 St. John's | L 75-70 |
East | 8 | Iona | Jim Valvano | Round of 40 | 9 Penn | L 73-69 |
East | 9 | Penn | Bob Weinhauer | Fourth Place | 2 Michigan State | L 101-67 |
East | 10 | St. John's | Lou Carnesecca | Regional Runner-up | 9 Penn | L 64-62 |
Mideast | ||||||
Mideast | 1 | Notre Dame | Digger Phelps | Regional Runner-up | 2 Michigan State | L 80-68 |
Mideast | 2 | Michigan State | Jud Heathcote | Champion | 1 Indiana State | W 75-64 |
Mideast | 3 | LSU | Dale Brown | Sweet Sixteen | 2 Michigan State | L 87-71 |
Mideast | 4 | Iowa | Lute Olson | Round of 32 | 5 Toledo | L 74-72 |
Mideast | 5 | Toledo | Bob Nichols | Sweet Sixteen | 1 Notre Dame | L 79-71 |
Mideast | 6 | Appalachian State | Bobby Cremins | Round of 32 | 3 LSU | L 71-57 |
Mideast | 7 | Detroit | Smokey Gaines | Round of 40 | 10 Lamar | L 95-87 |
Mideast | 8 | Tennessee | Don DeVoe | Round of 32 | 1 Notre Dame | L 73-67 |
Mideast | 9 | Eastern Kentucky | Ed Byhre | Round of 40 | 8 Tennessee | L 97-81 |
Mideast | 10 | Lamar | Billy Tubbs | Round of 32 | 2 Michigan State | L 95-64 |
Midwest | ||||||
Midwest | 1 | Indiana State | Bill Hodges | Runner Up | 2 Michigan State | L 75-64 |
Midwest | 2 | Arkansas | Eddie Sutton | Regional Runner-up | 1 Indiana State | L 73-71 |
Midwest | 3 | Louisville | Denny Crum | Sweet Sixteen | 2 Arkansas | L 73-62 |
Midwest | 4 | Texas | Abe Lemons | Round of 32 | 5 Oklahoma | L 90-76 |
Midwest | 5 | Oklahoma | Dave Bliss | Sweet Sixteen | 1 Indiana State | L 93-72 |
Midwest | 6 | South Alabama | Cliff Ellis | Round of 32 | 3 Louisville | L 69-66 |
Midwest | 7 | Weber State | Neil McCarthy | Round of 32 | 2 Arkansas | L 74-63 |
Midwest | 8 | Virginia Tech | Charles Moir | Round of 32 | 1 Indiana State | L 86-69 |
Midwest | 9 | Jacksonville | Tates Locke | Round of 40 | 8 Virginia Tech | L 70-53 |
Midwest | 10 | New Mexico State | Ken Hayes | Round of 40 | 7 Weber State | L 81-78 |
West | ||||||
West | 1 | UCLA | Gary Cunningham | Regional Runner-up | 2 DePaul | L 95-91 |
West | 2 | DePaul | Ray Meyer | Third Place | 1 Indiana State | L 76-74 |
West | 3 | Marquette | Hank Raymonds | Sweet Sixteen | 2 DePaul | L 62-56 |
West | 4 | San Francisco | Dan Belluomini | Sweet Sixteen | 1 UCLA | L 99-81 |
West | 5 | BYU | Frank Arnold | Round of 32 | 4 San Francisco | L 86-63 |
West | 6 | Pacific | Stan Morrison | Round of 32 | 3 Marquette | L 73-48 |
West | 7 | USC | Bob Boyd | Round of 32 | 2 DePaul | L 89-78 |
West | 8 | Utah | Jerry Pimm | Round of 40 | 9 Pepperdine | L 92-88 |
West | 9 | Pepperdine | Gary Colson | Round of 32 | 1 UCLA | L 76-71 |
West | 10 | Utah State | Rod Tueller | Round of 40 | 7 USC | L 86-67 |
Bracket
* – Denotes overtime period
East region
First round | Second round | Regional Semifinals | Regional Finals | |||||||||||||||
7 | Temple | 70 | ||||||||||||||||
10 | St. John's | 75 | ||||||||||||||||
10 | St. John's | 80 | ||||||||||||||||
2 | Duke | 78 | ||||||||||||||||
10 | St. John's | 67 | ||||||||||||||||
6 | Rutgers | 65 | ||||||||||||||||
3 | Georgetown | 58 | ||||||||||||||||
6 | Rutgers | 64 | ||||||||||||||||
10 | St. John's | 62 | ||||||||||||||||
9 | Penn | 64 | ||||||||||||||||
8 | Iona | 69 | ||||||||||||||||
9 | Penn | 73 | ||||||||||||||||
9 | Penn | 72 | ||||||||||||||||
1 | North Carolina | 71 | ||||||||||||||||
9 | Penn | 84 | ||||||||||||||||
4 | Syracuse | 76 | ||||||||||||||||
4 | Syracuse | 89 | ||||||||||||||||
5 | Connecticut | 81 | ||||||||||||||||
Mideast region
First round | Second round | Regional Semifinals | Regional Finals | |||||||||||||||
7 | Detroit | 87 | ||||||||||||||||
10 | Lamar | 95 | ||||||||||||||||
10 | Lamar | 64 | ||||||||||||||||
2 | Michigan State | 95 | ||||||||||||||||
2 | Michigan State | 87 | ||||||||||||||||
3 | LSU | 71 | ||||||||||||||||
3 | LSU | 71 | ||||||||||||||||
6 | Appalachian State | 57 | ||||||||||||||||
2 | Michigan State | 80 | ||||||||||||||||
1 | Notre Dame | 68 | ||||||||||||||||
8 | Tennessee | 97 | ||||||||||||||||
9 | E Kentucky | 81 | ||||||||||||||||
8 | Tennessee | 67 | ||||||||||||||||
1 | Notre Dame | 73 | ||||||||||||||||
1 | Notre Dame | 79 | ||||||||||||||||
5 | Toledo | 71 | ||||||||||||||||
4 | Iowa | 72 | ||||||||||||||||
5 | Toledo | 74 | ||||||||||||||||
Midwest region
First round | Second round | Regional Semifinals | Regional Finals | |||||||||||||||
7 | Weber State | 81 | ||||||||||||||||
10 | New Mexico State | 78* | ||||||||||||||||
7 | Weber State | 63 | ||||||||||||||||
2 | Arkansas | 74 | ||||||||||||||||
2 | Arkansas | 73 | ||||||||||||||||
3 | Louisville | 62 | ||||||||||||||||
3 | Louisville | 69 | ||||||||||||||||
6 | South Alabama | 66 | ||||||||||||||||
2 | Arkansas | 71 | ||||||||||||||||
1 | Indiana State | 73 | ||||||||||||||||
8 | Virginia Tech | 70 | ||||||||||||||||
9 | Jacksonville | 53 | ||||||||||||||||
8 | Virginia Tech | 69 | ||||||||||||||||
1 | Indiana State | 86 | ||||||||||||||||
1 | Indiana State | 93 | ||||||||||||||||
5 | Oklahoma | 72 | ||||||||||||||||
4 | Texas | 76 | ||||||||||||||||
5 | Oklahoma | 90 | ||||||||||||||||
West region
First round | Second round | Regional Semifinals | Regional Finals | |||||||||||||||
7 | USC | 86 | ||||||||||||||||
10 | Utah State | 67 | ||||||||||||||||
7 | USC | 78 | ||||||||||||||||
2 | DePaul | 89 | ||||||||||||||||
2 | DePaul | 62 | ||||||||||||||||
3 | Marquette | 56 | ||||||||||||||||
3 | Marquette | 73 | ||||||||||||||||
6 | Pacific | 48 | ||||||||||||||||
2 | DePaul | 95 | ||||||||||||||||
1 | UCLA | 91 | ||||||||||||||||
8 | Utah | 88* | ||||||||||||||||
9 | Pepperdine | 92 | ||||||||||||||||
9 | Pepperdine | 71 | ||||||||||||||||
1 | UCLA | 76 | ||||||||||||||||
1 | UCLA | 99 | ||||||||||||||||
4 | San Francisco | 81 | ||||||||||||||||
4 | San Francisco | 86 | ||||||||||||||||
5 | BYU | 63 | ||||||||||||||||
Final Four
National Semifinals | National Championship Game | |||||||
E9 | Penn | 67 | ||||||
ME2 | Michigan State | 101 | ||||||
ME2 | Michigan State | 75 | ||||||
MW1 | Indiana State | 64 | ||||||
MW1 | Indiana State | 76 | ||||||
W2 | DePaul | 74 | National Third Place Game | |||||
W2 | DePaul | 96 | ||||||
E9 | Penn | 93 |
References
- ↑ http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=270510127
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. 24.1 Nielsen rating