The Michigan State Spartans basketball team represents Michigan State University and competes in the Big Ten Conference of NCAA Division I. The team currently plays their home games at the 16,000 capacity Breslin Student Events Center, located in East Lansing, MI. Their official uniform colors are green and white and the mascot is Sparty. They have won two NCAA championships and ten Big Ten championships, and the National Championship in both the 1979 NCAA Tournament and 2000 NCAA Tournament.
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The 1979 National Championship story line was highly touted as Magic vs. Bird, and was achieved by a team under the coaching of Jud Heathcote that included MVP Magic Johnson, Jay Vincent and Greg Kelser. MSU led by future NBA hall of famer Larry Bird, beat the then undefeated Indiana State Sycamores, and the 2000 National Championship was achieved by Morris Peterson, Charlie Bell, and MVP Mateen Cleaves leading the team in a victory over the Florida Gators. Michigan State basketball has been selected for 11 consecutive NCAA tournament bids as of the end of the 2008 season, and they have been to the Final Four a total of six times in its history in 1957, 1979, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2005 and have made 22 NCAA Tournament appearances.
They played at the most-attended basketball game in history, against Kentucky on December 13, 2003, when they held a match in front of 78,129 people at Ford Field, a stadium in Detroit, and Kentucky won this game by a score of 79-74.