Two things haven’t happened at MSU since the Earvin “Magic” Johnson era.

The men’s basketball team hadn’t hung an NCAA national championship banner from the rafters, and no Spartan player had recorded a triple-double.

Those both changed Sunday.

The game against the Golden Grizzlies of Oakland began as the coaches, players and fans got to watch the green and white NCAA national championship banner drop from the ceiling.

And MSU’s 97-61 victory ended when senior guard Charlie Bell became the second Spartan to ever tally a triple-double, recording 13 points, 10 assists and 11 rebounds. Johnson was the first.

MSU last dropped a banner in 1999 before the Purdue game. The banner said Big Ten Champions, a preconceived notion that was upended when MSU lost that game. The Spartans ended the 1998-1999 season as co-champions.

“I was really nervous to tell you the truth,” Izzo said. “But the players and the fans deserve to (see the banner dropped).”

This time, the unveiling itself was the only disaster.

After a dramatic introduction with speeches by Athletics Director Clarence Underwood and Izzo, the cords holding the banner were dropped, but only one corner of it actually fell.

“It was kind neat to look up there and see that one corner of the banner,” Izzo said. “I never got to see the whole thing.”

For the returning national championship team members, despite the technical difficulties, the unveiling marks a turning point for their program.

“That was a pretty special moment,” senior center Andre Hutson said. “Something that will always be here for years. But now we have to try and move on.”

But if the game began with a special historical moment, Bell may have topped it in the end with his triple-double.

“That’s an incredible stat to have,” head coach Tom Izzo said. “I think he could have had a quadruple-double, if you count his effort on defense. His defense might have been what won our game.”

Bell said he knew he was close to achieving triple-double status at halftime, when his little brother, Brandon, a sophomore at Flint Southwestern High School, told him he was almost there.

“I knew I had the rebounds and assists at halftime when my brother told me,” Bell said. “He sits in the stands with his little pen and paper, kinda like my own statistician up in the stands.”

Playing Oakland has become a major stat builder for Bell. Last year in MSU’s 86-51 wipe out of Oakland, Bell scored 20 points, and contributed two assists and four rebounds.

“I wish we could play Oakland every game,” he said.