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1976–77 Michigan State Spartans men's basketball
1976–77 Michigan State Spartans men's basketball
Conference	Big Ten Conference
Record	12–15 (9–9 Big Ten)
Head coach	Jud Heathcote (1st season);
Assistant coaches	Don Monson; Vernon Payne;
Captain	Robert Chapman
Home arena	Jenison Fieldhouse
	Seasons ← 1975–76 1977–78 →

1976–77 Big Ten Conference men's basketball standings
v t e	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
No. 1 Michigan	16	–	2	.889	26	–	4	.867
Purdue	14	–	4	.778	20	–	8	.714
Iowa	12	–	6	.667	20	–	7	.741
Indiana	11	–	7	.611	16	–	11	.593
Michigan State	9	–	9	.500	12	–	15	.444
Illinois	8	–	10	.444	16	–	14	.533
Wisconsin	7	–	11	.389	11	–	16	.407
Northwestern	7	–	11	.389	9	–	18	.333
Ohio State	6	–	12	.333	11	–	16	.407
No. 13 Minnesota*	0	–	18	.000	0	–	27	.000

Rankings from AP Poll *Minnesota forfeited all games due to NCAA sanctions. Disputed record (15–3, 24–3)

The 1976–77 Michigan State Spartans men's basketball team represented Michigan State University in the 1976–77 NCAA Division I men's basketball season as members of the Big Ten Conference. They played their home games at Jenison Fieldhouse in East Lansing, Michigan and were coached by Jud Heathcote in his first year as head coach of the Spartans. MSU finished the season 10–17, 7–11 in Big Ten play to finish in fifth place.

Due to forfeits related to NCAA sanctions to Minnesota for improper selling of tickets,^[1] MSU's official record for the season is 12–15, 9–9.

Previous season

The Spartans finished the 1975–76 season 14–13, 10–8 in Big Ten play to finish in fourth place. The season marked the last season for Gus Ganakas as Spartan head coach.

Roster and statistics

1976–77 Michigan State Spartans men's basketball team
No	Name	Pos	Year	Height	Pts	Reb	Ast
12	Terry Donnelly	G	FR	6–2	7.9	1.9
15	Ron Charles	F	FR	6–7	2.5	1.9
21	Donald Flowers	G	JR	6–1	0.0	0.0
22	Nate Phillips	G	JR	6–4	0.7	0.7
23	Kevin Vandenbussche	G	SR	6–4	0.4	0.8
24	Herbert Drayton	G	SR	6–4	0.3	0.3
25	Alfred Brown	F	SO	6–6	1.3	1.6
32	Greg Kelser	F	SO	6–5	21.7	10.8
33	Edgar Wilson	F	SR	6–5	9.2	4.7
34	Ricky Nash	F	JR	6–4	0.0	0.4
41	Dan Riewald	F	SR	6–5	0.2	0.7
42	Tanya Webb	C	SO	6–7	3.9	3.1
44	Robert Chapman	G	SR	6–2	5.9	3.1
45	James Coutre	C	JR	6–9	5.9	5.4
52	Les DeYoung	C	JR	6–9
	Mike Longaker	G	FR	6–1	0.2	0.0

Source^[2]^[3]

Schedule and results

Date time, TV	Opponent^#	Result	Record	Site city, state
Non-conference regular season
Nov 29, 1976*	at Central Michigan	L 76–81	0–1	Rose Arena Mount Pleasant, MI
Dec 4, 1976*	Western Michigan	L 73–74	0–2	Jenison Field House East Lansing, MI
Dec 6, 1976*	No. 9 North Carolina	L 58–81	0–3	Jenison Field House East Lansing, MI
Dec 11, 1976*	Eastern Michigan	W 54–52 ^OT	1–3	Jenison Field House East Lansing, MI
Dec 15*	Detroit Mercy	L 94–99	1–4	Jenison Field House East Lansing, MI
Dec 18, 1976*	at Canisius	W 82–59	2–4	Buffalo Memorial Auditorium Buffalo, NY
Dec 18, 1976*	NC State	W 78–60	3–4	Jenison Field House East Lansing, MI
Dec 29, 1976*	vs. Holy Cross Gator Bowl Tournament semifinals	L 61–70	3–5	Swisher Gymnasium Jacksonville, FL
Dec 30, 1976*	vs. Jacksonville Gator Bowl Tournament third place game	L 63–65	3–6	Swisher Gymnasium Jacksonville, FL
Big Ten regular season
Jan. 6, 1977	Wisconsin	W 84–61	4–6 (1–0)	Jenison Field House East Lansing, MI
Jan 8, 1977	Northwestern	L 68–70	4–7 (1–1)	Jenison Field House East Lansing, MI
Jan 15, 1977	No. 6 Michigan Rivalry	L 70–83	4–8 (1–2)	Jenison Field House East Lansing, MI
Jan 17, 1977	at Indiana	W 61–60	5–8 (2–2)	Assembly Hall Bloomington, IN
Jan 20, 1977	Illinois	W 67–58	6–8 (3–2)	Jenison Field House East Lansing, MI
Jan 22, 1977	No. 19 Purdue	L 70–76	6–9 (3–3)	Jenison Field House East Lansing, MI
Jan 24, 1977	at No. 11 Minnesota	L 70–75	6–10 (3–4)	Williams Arena Minneapolis, MN
Jan 27, 1977	at Northwestern	L 58–66	6–11 (3–5)	Welsh-Ryan Arena Evanston, IL
Jan 29, 1977	at Wisconsin	L 83–87	6–12 (3–6)	Wisconsin Field House Madison, WI
Feb 5, 1977	Indiana	L 79–81	6–13 (3–7)	Jenison Field House East Lansing, MI
Feb 7, 1977	at Iowa	L 79–87	6–14 (3–8)	Iowa Field House Iowa City, IA
Feb 12, 1977	at Ohio State	W 71–67	7–14 (4–8)	St. John Arena Columbus, OH
Feb 17, 1977	No. 12 Minnesota	L 77–99	7–15 (4–9)	Jenison Field House East Lansing, MI
Feb 19, 1977	Iowa	W 81–79	8–15 (5–9)	Jenison Field House East Lansing, MI
Feb 26, 1977	at No. 3 Michigan Rivalry	L 65–69	8–16 (5–10)	Crisler Arena Ann Arbor, MI
Feb 28, 1977	Ohio State	W 80–79	9–16 (6–10)	Jenison Field House East Lansing, MI
Mar 3, 1977	at Purdue	L 69–78	9–17 (6–11)	Mackey Arena West Lafayette, IN
Mar 5, 1977	at Illinois	W 62–61	10–17 (7–11)	Assembly Hall Champaign, IL
*Non-conference game. ^#Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. Source^[4]^[3]

References

^ Fury, Shawn (January 5, 2010). "Shawn's Blog: Who was the best college team that never existed?". Shawn's Blog. Retrieved February 10, 2017.
^ "1976–77 Michigan State Spartans Roster and Stats | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com". College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
^ ^a ^b "16-17 Michigan State Spartans" (PDF). Michigan State University. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 15, 2019. Retrieved April 16, 2022.
^ "1976-77 Michigan State Spartans Schedule and Results".

[1] Fury, Shawn (January 5, 2010). "Shawn's Blog: Who was the best college team that never existed?". Shawn's Blog. Retrieved February 10, 2017.

[2] "1976–77 Michigan State Spartans Roster and Stats | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com". College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com. Retrieved February 21, 2017.

[MSU_Media_Guide-3] "16-17 Michigan State Spartans" (PDF). Michigan State University. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 15, 2019. Retrieved April 16, 2022.

[4] "1976-77 Michigan State Spartans Schedule and Results".

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