1984–85 Michigan State Spartans men's basketball team

The 1984–85 Michigan State Spartans men's basketball team represented Michigan State University in the 1984–85 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The team played their home games at Jenison Field House in East Lansing, Michigan and were members of the Big Ten Conference. They were coached by Jud Heathcote in his ninth year at Michigan State. The Spartans finished with a record of 19–10, 10–8 in Big Ten play to finish in fifth place. They received an at-large bid to the newly-expanded, 64-team NCAA tournament as the No. 10 seed in the Midwest region. It marked the school's first trip to the NCAA tournament since 1979 when they won the championship. There they lost to UAB in the First Round.

1984–85 Michigan State Spartans men's basketball
Spartan Cutlass Classic champions
NCAA tournament, First Round
Conference	Big Ten Conference
Ranking
Coaches	No. 20
Record	19–10 (10–8 Big Ten)
Head coach	Jud Heathcote (9th season)
Assistant coaches	Tom Izzo Mike Deane Herb Williams
Captains	Sam Vincent Richard Mudd
Home arena	Jenison Fieldhouse

1984–85 Big Ten Conference men's basketball standings

	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
No. 2 Michigan	16	–	2		.889			26	–	4		.867
No. 12 Illinois	12	–	6		.667			26	–	9		.743
Purdue	11	–	7		.611			20	–	9		.690
Ohio State	11	–	7		.611			20	–	10		.667
Iowa	10	–	8		.556			21	–	11		.656
Michigan State	10	–	8		.556			19	–	10		.655
Indiana	7	–	11		.389			19	–	14		.576
Minnesota	6	–	12		.333			13	–	15		.464
Wisconsin	5	–	13		.278			14	–	14		.500
Northwestern	2	–	16		.111			6	–	22		.214
Rankings from AP Poll

Previous season

The Spartans finished the 1983–84 season with a record of 15–13, 8–10 to finish in a tie for fifth place in Big Ten play.

Roster and statistics

1984–85 Michigan State Spartans men's basketball team
No	Name	Pos	Year	Height	Pts	Reb	Ast
11	Sam Vincent	G	SR	6–2	23.0	3.9	4.0
4	Scott Skiles	G	JR	6–1	17.7	3.2	5.8
00	Ken Johnson	C	SR	6–8	10.8	10.2	0.6
35	Larry Polec	F	SR	6–8	8.7	4.4	1.0
13	Darryl Johnson	G	SO	6–2	5.3	1.7	1.3
24	Richard Mudd	F	SR	6–9	3.9	5.5	0.3
15	Ralph Walker	F	JR	6–8	2.3	1.4	0.4
45	Carlton Valentine	F	FR	6–6	1.6	1.2	0.0
40	Barry Fordham	F	SO	6–8	1.1	0.6	0.1
21	Greg Pedro	G	SO	6–4	1.0	0.6	0.5
20	Greg Vanek	F	JR	6–6	0.3	0.2	0.0

Source

Schedule and results

Date time, TV	Rank#	Opponent#	Result	Record	Site city, state
Non-conference regular season
Nov 24, 1984*		at Canisius	W 80–71	1–0	Koessler Athletic Center  Buffalo, NY
Nov 30, 1984*		Western Michigan Spartan Cutlass Classic Semifinal	W 77–61	2–0	Jenison Field House  East Lansing, MI
Dec 1, 1984*		Army Spartan Cutlass Classic Championship	W 76–64	3–0	Jenison Field House  East Lansing, MI
Dec 10, 1984*		Saint Peter's	W 50–38	4–0	Jenison Field House  East Lansing, MI
Dec 12, 1984*		at Western Illinois	W 93–61	5–0	Western Hall  Macomb, IL
Dec 15, 1984*		Missouri	W 79–61	6–0	Jenison Field House  East Lansing, MI
Dec 18, 1984*		at George Washington	W 68–54	7–0	Charles E. Smith Center  Washington, D.C.
Dec 22, 1984*		at Illinois-Chicago	W 81–60	8–0	UIC Pavilion  Chicago, IL
Dec 28, 1984*		vs. Boston College Cabrillo Classic Semifinal	L 78–82	8–1	Peterson Gym  San Diego, CA
Dec 29, 1984*		at San Diego State Cabrillo Classic Third Place Game	W 77–61	9–1	Peterson Gym  San Diego, CA
Big 10 regular season
Jan 3, 1985		Ohio State	W 82–79	10–1 (1–0)	Jenison Field House  East Lansing, MI
Jan 5, 1985		No. 12 Indiana	W 68–61	11–1 (2–0)	Jenison Field House  East Lansing, MI
Jan 10, 1985	No. 17	at Purdue	W 81–72	12–1 (3–0)	Mackey Arena  West Lafayette, IN
Jan 12, 1985	No. 17	No. 15 Illinois	L 63–75	12–2 (3–1)	Assembly Hall  Champaign, IL
Jan 17, 1985	No. 19	Iowa	L 65–79	12–3 (3–2)	Jenison Field House  East Lansing, MI
Jan 19, 1985	No. 19	Minnesota	L 75–81	12–4 (3–3)	Jenison Field House  East Lansing, MI
Jan 24, 1985		at No. 18 Michigan Rivalry	L 75–86	12–5 (3–4)	Crisler Arena  Ann Arbor, MI
Jan 31, 1985		at Wisconsin	W 77–68	13–5 (4–4)	Wisconsin Field House  Madison, WI
Feb 2, 1985		at Northwestern	W 68–54	14–5 (5–4)	Welsh-Ryan Arena  Evanston, IL
Feb 7, 1985		No. 9 Illinois	W 64–56	15–5 (6–4)	Jenison Field House  East Lansing, MI
Feb 9, 1985		Purdue	L 65–66	15–6 (6–5)	Jenison Field House  East Lansing, MI
Feb 13, 1985		at Minnesota	L 65–73	15–7 (6–6)	Williams Arena  Minneapolis, MN
Feb 16, 1985		at No. 11 Iowa	W 57–55	16–7 (7–6)	Carver-Hawkeye Arena  Iowa City, IA
Feb 21, 1985		No. 3 Michigan Rivalry	L 73–75	16–8 (7–7)	Jenison Field House  East Lansing, MI
Feb 27, 1985		Northwestern	W 61–47	17–8 (8–7)	Jenison Field House  East Lansing, MI
Mar 2, 1985		Wisconsin	W 82–63	18–8 (9–7)	Jenison Field House  East Lansing, MI
Mar 7, 1985		at Indiana	W 68–58	19–7 (10–7)	Assembly Hall  Bloomington, IN
Mar 9, 1985		at Ohio State	L 79–90	19–9 (10–8)	St. John Arena  Columbus, OH
NCAA Tournament
Mar 15, 1985	(10 MW)	(7 MW) Alabama-Birmingham First Round	L 68–70	19–10	Hofheinz Pavilion  Houston, TX
*Non-conference game. #Rankings from AP Poll,. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. MW=Midwest Region Source. All times are in Eastern Time.

Awards and honors

• Sam Vincent – All-Big Ten First Team