North Carolina's 71-65 victory over Gonzaga in the NCAA Tournament championship game Monday night averaged 14.5 in the Nielsen ratings, up 21 percent from 2016.

Nice try, Tar Heels and Bulldogs, but you weren't in the same ballpark as the Michigan State-Indiana State national-title tilt in 1979 that drew a whopping 24.1 rating.

In fairness, nobody's been close in a while. It's the highest-rated basketball game at any level.

On March 26, 1979, Magic Johnson's MSU team defeated Larry Bird's ISU squad, 75-64, at the Special Events Center in Salt Lake City. That showdown had star power - much more than folks may have realized at the time - and an estimated 35.1 million viewers tuned in to the NBC telecast announced by Dick Enberg, Billy Packer and Al McGuire.

The course of college basketball and the NCAA tourney changed that day.

"Everyone asks, 'Did you understand the importance of that game at the time?'" retired MSU coach Jud Heathcote said in a 2009 MLive story, 30 years after the Spartans' historic run. "Of course, we didn't. But as the years have passed, we realize we had two of the greatest players in the history of the game playing against each other, so it gets a different light just because of that.

"But, the buildup at that time was unbelievable. They had 400 media people there, where they had 200 at the most at previous Final Fours. When you look back at it, it was kind of a happening not just a game, though when we were preparing for it, it was just a game."

Cable TV has changed the landscape in sports viewing since 1979. In fact, ESPN launched six months after Magic and Bird squared off in '79, the first of many clashes between two of the game's greatest players in a rivalry that peaked as NBA rivals.

Indiana State entered with the No. 1 national ranking and a 33-0 record, but Michigan State had more firepower despite taking some lumps through the course of the season.

Two stars are better than one, and that was the dynamic when the Spartans and Sycamores met.

Magic Johnson led all scorers with 24 points on 8-of-15 shooting and he added seven rebounds and five assists. His running mate, Greg Kelser, had 19 points on 7-of-13 shooting, plus eight rebounds and nine assists.

Larry Bird was a machine in a Final Four win over DePaul with 35 points on 16-of-19 shooting, 16 boards and nine assists. He found the going a lot tougher against MSU, however, as he scored a team-high 19 points but missed two-thirds of his shot attempts (7-for-21). Bird did grab 13 rebounds, but it was an otherwise frustrating day for the "Hick from French Lick."

MSU blasted Pennsylvania, 101-67, in the national semifinals, while Indiana State edged DePaul, 76-74.

Johnson was named the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player as he totaled 53 points, 17 rebounds and 15 assists in the two games. Johnson, Kelser and Bird joined DePaul's Mark Aguirre and Gary Garland on the all-tournament team in the Final Four.

MSU, which was 4-4 in the Big Ten at one point, finished the season 26-6.