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1978-79 Season Summary

Season Index: Previous Season ▪ Next Season

National Champion: Michigan State
Final Four: DePaul, Indiana State, Michigan State and Pennsylvania

Consensus Player of the Year: Larry Bird

AP Preseason #1: Duke ▪ AP Final #1: Indiana State

Conference Summary

Record does not reflect forfeits or vacated games
Rk Conference Schls W L W-L% AP NCAA FF Regular Season Champ Tournament Champ
1 Atlantic Coast Conference 7 132 72 .647 2 2 0 Duke
North Carolina		 North Carolina
2 Atlantic Sun Conference 8 112 107 .511 0 0 0 Louisiana-Monroe Louisiana-Monroe
3 Big Eight Conference 8 119 105 .531 1 1 0 Oklahoma Oklahoma
4 Big Sky Conference 8 119 100 .543 0 1 0 Weber State Weber State
5 Big Ten Conference 10 177 121 .594 3 2 1 Iowa
Michigan State
Purdue
6 East Coast Conference 12 165 163 .503 0 1 0 Temple (East)
Bucknell (West)		 Temple
7 Eastern Athletic Association 8 112 112 .500 1 1 0 Villanova Rutgers
8 Independent 68 976 853 .534 4 8 1 Syracuse
9 Ivy Group 8 105 112 .484 1 1 1 Pennsylvania
10 Metropolitan Collegiate Athletic Conference 7 109 92 .542 1 2 0 Louisville Virginia Tech
11 Mid-American Conference 10 139 138 .502 1 1 0 Toledo
12 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference 4 60 47 .561 0 0 0 North Carolina A&T North Carolina A&T
13 Missouri Valley Conference 9 143 113 .559 1 2 1 Indiana State Indiana State
14 New Jersey-New York 7 Conference 4 50 64 .439 1 1 0
15 Ohio Valley Conference 7 91 98 .481 0 1 0 Eastern Kentucky Eastern Kentucky
16 Pacific Coast Athletic Association 8 113 110 .507 0 2 0 Pacific Pacific
17 Pacific-10 Conference 10 154 125 .552 1 2 0 UCLA
18 Southeastern Conference 10 168 124 .575 1 2 0 Louisiana State Tennessee
19 Southern Conference 9 138 110 .556 0 1 0 Appalachian State Appalachian State
20 Southland Conference 6 92 73 .558 0 1 0 Lamar
21 Southwest Athletic Conference 5 86 52 .623 0 0 0 Alcorn State
22 Southwest Conference 9 145 117 .553 1 2 0 Arkansas
Texas		 Arkansas
23 Sun Belt Conference 6 87 79 .524 0 2 0 South Alabama Jacksonville
24 West Coast Conference 8 129 95 .576 1 2 0 San Francisco
25 Western Athletic Conference 7 111 83 .572 0 2 0 Brigham Young

AP Poll Summary

School Conf Pre 11/28 12/5 12/12 12/19 12/26 1/3 1/9 1/16 1/23 1/30 2/6 2/13 2/20 2/27 3/6 Final
Indiana State MVC       20 16 11 11 9 5 3 2 2 1 2 1 1 1
UCLA Pac-10 2 2 2 5 3 3 6 6 3 6 5 4 2 1 3 2 2
Michigan State Big Ten 7 7 4 3 5 4 1 1 6 4 14 10 8 7 4 4 3
Notre Dame Ind 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 3 3 2 5 4
Arkansas SWC           20 14 10 11 15 19 14 11 10 9 7 5
DePaul Ind                           20 15 8 6
Louisiana State SEC 14 11 12 11 10 7 7 5 9 9 10 8 6 5 8 9 7
Syracuse Ind 9 9 9 10 8 19   20 12 12 8 7 7 8 6 10 8
North Carolina ACC 16 14 14 13 6 5 3 3 2 2 4 6 4 4 7 3 9
Marquette Ind 18 17 16 14 13 16 17 13 13 13 12 9 10 9 10 12 10
Duke ACC 1 1 1 1 1 1 5 7 8 7 3 3 5 6 5 6 11
San Francisco WCC 17 15 17 19                     20 19 12
Louisville Metro 4 5 7 4 12 10 16 12 7 5 6 5 9 13 13 18 13
Pennsylvania Ivy                                 14
Purdue Big Ten                         13 18 19 16 15
Oklahoma Big 8                                 16
St. John's (NY) NJNY7                                 17
Rutgers EAA 15 16 18                           18
Toledo MAC                                 19
Iowa Big Ten                       15 14 12 11 14 20
School Conf Pre 11/28 12/5 12/12 12/19 12/26 1/3 1/9 1/16 1/23 1/30 2/6 2/13 2/20 2/27 3/6 Final
Alabama SEC 19               18 18 13 16 20        
Detroit Mercy Ind                         18 16 18 17  
Georgetown Ind     20 16 14 15 12 14 10 11 9 18 16 17 16 11  
Illinois Big Ten       18 15 6 4 4 4 8 14 20          
Indiana Big Ten 10 20                              
Kansas Big 8 5 4 5 8 7 18 19 15 20                
Kentucky SEC 11 10 10 6 11 13 9 17                  
Long Beach State PCAA           17 15 19                  
Maryland ACC   19 19       20   19   17            
Michigan Big Ten 8 8 6 9 9 8 13 16                  
Mississippi State SEC             18                    
Nevada-Las Vegas Ind 20 18 15 15 18 14                      
North Carolina State ACC 12 6 8 7 4 9 8 8 14 20              
Ohio State Big Ten                 16 10 7 13 17 14 17    
Southern California Pac-10 13 12 11 12 20                        
Temple ECC               18 17 16 18 19 15 15 12 13  
Tennessee SEC                               20  
Texas SWC 6 13 13 17 19         17 11 12 12 11 14 15  
Texas A&M SWC         17 12 10 11 15 14 16 11          
Vanderbilt SEC                   19 20 17 19 19