The team played their home games at newly-opened Breslin Center in East Lansing, Michigan and were members of the Big Ten Conference.

The Spartans finished the season with a record of 28–6, 15–3 to win the Big Ten championship by two games.

3-ranked team in the country, they received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament as the No.

Ken Redfield was named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year.

The team also featured sophomore Mark Montgomery and freshman Dwayne Stephens who would both later become assistant coaches at Michigan State under Tom Izzo.

The Spartans received the Big Ten's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament as a No.

In the Tournament, the Spartans narrowly defeated 16th-seeded Murray State, led by Popeye Jones, in overtime to avoid becoming the only No.

[1][2] They again narrowly defeated ninth-seeded UC Santa Barbara in the second round by four points to advance to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 1986.

[3] In the Sweet Sixteen, the Spartans 12-game winning streak came to end as they lost to fourth-seeded Georgia Tech.

The game featured a controversial last second basket by Tech's Kenny Anderson to force overtime where the Spartans fell 80–81.