A beaming smile graced Earvin "Magic" Johnson's face as the scissors in his hand snipped the final piece of the net in Salt Lake City.

The Spartans were champions.

It was 25 years ago today the Spartans were national champions for the first time, captivating the nation and changing college hoops in East Lansing.

"The first thing in memory is that it did revolutionize college basketball," said Billy Packer, a current analyst for CBS and broadcaster for the '79 championship game. "It was a culmination of a Michigan State team."

MSU was two years removed from a 12-15 season, but the addition of Lansing Everett's Johnson to the Spartans was an instant cure.

In 1977-78, the Spartans finished 25-5 overall and 15-3 in the Big Ten, claiming their first conference championship in more than 10 years. To cap things off, the Spartans reached the Elite Eight and were three points away from the Final Four.

Next season, with most of the team's stars returning, elite expectations were just the beginning. The team, led by seniors Johnson and Greg Kelser, painted East Lansing green and white by breezing through the NCAA Tournament and capturing the title with a 75-64 victory over a previously undefeated Indiana State team.

"We went into that year figuring that we were going to win the national championship because we had come so close the year before," said Jud Heathcote, MSU's coach from 1976 to 1995. "We had a better team, had the experience, and people in the Lansing area expected us to get to the Final Four and win."

Heathcote said before the teams had won their respective semifinal games, writers across the globe already were talking about an MSU-Indiana State final as inevitable.

"They were not talking about Michigan State vs. Penn, they were not talking about Indiana State vs. DePaul," Heathcote said. "They were talking about the matchup between the Bird man and the Magic man."

Eight games into the Big Ten season, the Spartans weren't looking to win a championship. They couldn't afford to because MSU had lost four of six games and was 4-4 in the Big Ten.

Heathcote said the Spartans changed the starting lineup, and there was a meeting where players went in discussing the team's porous defense and poor rebounding and left after dedicating themselves to saving the season.

"At midseason, we said we'd be lucky to get to the NIT," Heathcote said.

MSU won its next 10 games before losing the regular-season finale to Wisconsin. But the team's mark already had been left, and it tied for the conference championship.

The Spartans took on Lamar in the first round, cruising to a 95-64 victory, with Magic's triple-double performance leading the way. LSU struggled in the second round against MSU's defense, and the Spartans won, 87-71.

The Elite Eight contest was against Notre Dame, a squad Heathcote said was the real second-best team in the tournament.

MSU went into that game with a chip on its shoulder. The Fighting Irish had a television contract and were on national TV weekly - something that irritated the Spartans.

"Our guys were tired of watching them," Heathcote said. "Our guys could hardly wait to show the world, even though we're not on TV every week, that we're better than them."

An 80-68 victory against the Irish pitted MSU in the Final Four against Pennsylvania, but Heathcote says the Quakers could have pulled the upset because none of his players were serious about them.

"I couldn't get anyone to get serious about Penn," Heathcote said. "Magic kept saying, 'Coach, that's the Ivy League.'"

Penn attacked the Spartans' defense well, but couldn't hit many shots. The Spartans, who built a 50-17 lead at halftime before winning 101-67, again were led by a Magic triple-double. The next and final step was against Bird's Sycamores.

"The guys just figured, 'We've come this far, we have a superstar cast, we're better than Indiana State,'" Heathcote said. "We went in and closed the deal."

But the Spartans did win, finishing the year 26-6, and the resurrection of MSU hoops had begun.

Gus Ganakas, who was the assistant athletic director at the time, said the '79 title was a return to glory for MSU basketball.

"We had it once during the Johnny Green era, then it slipped," said Ganakas, who also coached the Spartans from 1969 to 1976 and has just concluded his 17th season as a color commentator on MSU basketball radio broadcasts.

"Then in the Magic era, it was recreated. It was an exciting time here. He revived the basketball interest here. It was a renaissance period for Michigan State basketball."