1978-79 College Basketball Season Summary

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National Champion: Michigan State

Final Four: DePaul, Indiana State, Michigan State and Penn

Consensus Player of the Year: Larry Bird

AP Preseason #1: Duke

AP Final #1: Indiana State

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Conference Summary

Sorted by SRS

Conference Summary Table
Rk	Conference	Schls	W	L	W-L%	SRS	SOS	AP	NCAA	FF	Regular Season Champ	Tournament Champ
1	Atlantic Coast Conference	7	132	72	.647	12.51	7.40	2	2	0	Duke, North Carolina	North Carolina
2	Big Ten Conference	10	177	121	.594	11.65	8.74	3	2	1	Iowa, Michigan State, Purdue
3	Southeastern Conference	10	168	124	.575	8.82	6.43	1	2	0	Louisiana State	Tennessee
4	Pacific-10 Conference	10	154	125	.552	7.16	6.15	1	2	0	UCLA
5	Western Athletic Conference	7	111	83	.572	5.79	4.77	0	2	0	Brigham Young
6	Big Eight Conference	8	119	105	.531	3.49	3.52	1	1	0	Oklahoma	Oklahoma
7	West Coast Athletic Conference	8	129	95	.576	3.21	2.39	1	2	0	San Francisco
8	Metropolitan Collegiate Athletic Conference	7	109	92	.542	2.66	2.42	1	2	0	Louisville	Virginia Tech
9	Southwest Conference	9	145	117	.553	2.56	2.85	1	2	0	Arkansas, Texas	Arkansas
10	Missouri Valley Conference	9	143	113	.559	2.47	2.80	1	2	1	Indiana State	Indiana State
11	Eastern Athletic Association	8	112	112	.500	-0.73	-0.01	1	1	0	Villanova	Rutgers
12	Pacific Coast Athletic Association	8	113	110	.507	-1.83	-0.21	0	2	0	Pacific	Pacific
13	Big Sky Conference	8	119	100	.543	-1.94	-0.80	0	1	0	Weber State	Weber State
14	New Jersey-New York 7 Conference	4	50	64	.439	-1.96	-0.24	1	1	0
15	Sun Belt Conference	6	87	79	.524	-3.22	-2.71	0	2	0	South Alabama	Jacksonville
16	Southland Conference	6	92	73	.558	-3.65	-3.61	0	1	0	Lamar
17	Mid-American Conference	10	139	138	.502	-3.76	-2.01	1	1	0	Toledo
18	Independent	68	976	853	.534	-4.00	-2.78	4	8	1
19	Southern Conference	9	138	110	.556	-4.22	-3.38	0	1	0	Appalachian State	Appalachian State
20	Ivy Group	8	105	112	.484	-4.72	-3.12	1	1	1	Pennsylvania
21	Southwest Athletic Conference	5	86	52	.623	-6.30	-7.20	0	0	0	Alcorn State
22	East Coast Conference	12	165	163	.503	-6.80	-5.20	0	1	0	Temple (East), Bucknell (West)	Temple
23	Trans America Athletic Conference	8	112	107	.511	-7.72	-6.23	0	0	0	Louisiana-Monroe	Louisiana-Monroe
24	Ohio Valley Conference	7	91	98	.481	-8.90	-5.58	0	1	0	Eastern Kentucky	Eastern Kentucky
25	Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference	4	60	47	.561	-14.41	-12.39	0	0	0	North Carolina A&T	North Carolina A&T

AP Poll Summary

AP Poll Summary Table
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	WCAC	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	-	-	-

Award Winners

Consensus All-America Teams

Statistical coverage for seasons prior to 1992-93 is mostly complete, however there are a small number of unknown player records.

Season Leaders

More 1978-79 Season Pages

1978-79 Season Pages