We consider the classical kicked rotor as an eigenvalue problem. We formulate the dynamics on a discrete lattice of size N X N and introduce a classical evolution operator. We then modify the classical evolution operator by coarse-graining the delta functions into gaussians and by introducing some phases. These modifications lead to a semiclassical evolution operator, and they reduce the number of participatingeigenstates from N^2 to N. The N surviving eigenstates agree exceedingly well with the corresponding quantum eigenstates.