When it comes to college basketball I don’t typically pay much attention to it until a heated rivalry game between UNC and Duke is on TV or either it’s March and a bracket has money riding on it. With no college to call my own, college basketball has always just been that thing that comes on during the weekend when nothing is on television anyways. So, given my lack of love for it typically, why then am I so enamored and in love with this game? Heck, for that matter, why am I more attached to my virtual Elon team than any other team in any other sport really playing right now?

In many ways College Hoops NCAA 2K8 (College Hoops from here on) plays a lot like the NBA version that 2K Sports released not too long ago, and while the fundamentals may be the same in many ways, there are a lot of things that make College Hoops more fun and overall a better experience. You’ll still set defenses, run plays, make passes, do lay-ups and slam dunks whenever you can, and take foul shots. However, College Hoops expands on the controls already there by tweaking and adding things, such as bringing over what seems like a slightly tighter lock-on D mode (hold in left trigger) and the ability to call pass plays with a few quick button presses, letting you perform quick pick and rolls or the ability to lob, bounce, or any other pass you can think of. Another nice feature College Hoops includes when it comes to running plays is that it will actually physically put markers on the floor, showing you in what way the play will unfold, showing you where you need to move and what passes to make and when; the visual indicators are subtle and really help make running plays a breeze incase you can’t remember what a specific play might look like just by the name alone. College Hoops also has the best free-throw system around, where making a basket is much more natural instead of a minigame where you are trying to center a moving ball on a slider.

The thing that makes College Hoops so different than the NBA version is the Sixth Man factor, which is the ambiance of the game that registers based on how into the game the crowd is. At times it can be frustrating dealing with the Sixth Man, but this usually only happens when it’s against you. If you find yourself playing away and in front of a huge crowd, expect to find your screen shaking as you try to make free-throws, making terrible passes, and miss almost every shot you take because the crowd has you so rattled. If you are the home team, however, you get to benefit from all those errors by making even more points, and you’ll find that with your crowd behind you, suddenly you’re making shots left and right and nailing threes with ease.

The crowd as a whole is awesome as they’ll really get into the game, yelling and cheering when the time for it is called; you’ll see more or less people in the stand depending on how good or bad the home team is doing; you’ll see people in the stands wearing your team colors even when you are away should a fan brave the hostile environment; and there is some great interactions, such as listening to the crowd shout-out in unison “Three!” as you take a jumper from behind the arch.

Besides playing being both the player and coach, actually controlling the shots and also picking what defense your team to run, you can also take on a more hands-off approach and simply play as the coach, telling your team when to double team or put pressure on a hot player, calling out plays for them to run, or switching it up and having them enter a new defensive formation when it is called for. Coaching the game also takes on a whole different perspective too, as you suddenly find yourself looking at the game from the coach’s eyes, having to manually turn your head to view the action and pressing on the thumbstick to walk up and down the court for better looks. The coach mode can be fun if you’re more into stats and actually being a coach instead of a player, but the viewing mode leaves a little to be desired; not bad, but not exactly helpful either.

The meat of College Hoops, and the mode that had me the most invested, is the Legacy mode, which has you playing as a brand new coach, trying to become the next huge college coach. Of course, given you’re going into the game untested, after you make your character you’ll find yourself with only a handful of smaller schools offering to take you on, and the only reason they are taking a chance is because they frankly have nowhere to go but up. After picking your team – I took Elon from my home state – you’ll then go on a few signing periods and recruiting periods (though this can be assigned to your assistant coaches if you want) and then finally start your season. The ultimate goal is of course to win every game, make it to the big dance, and then win the championship; however, with your team, don’t expect such miracles after only one season. Still, it’s really fun and is almost a story of sorts, as you really get into the progression of your team, feeling bad when you get stomped and jumping with joy when you manage to pull a win out you weren’t expecting. You’ll watch the championship bracket reveal show on television, hoping that your team manages to sneak in to prove themselves. After you’ve proven yourself you’ll then start to get offers for bigger and better schools, being able to move up if you want or stay behind and become a local legend instead.

Menus are easy to navigate once you start fiddling around and checking stats and seeing what does what, and the game also features some animated television programs that help immerse you into the game, though the announcers for these shows are pretty scary looking as they aren’t animated very well at all.

Besides playing the Legacy mode you can also play quick single games, create a Pontiac Tournament to play, compete in the College Hoop Classic, train and practice, and you can also choose to play against real opponents if you prefer, being able to play other players either over one system or playing on Xbox Live. Given how fast the game of basketball (and especially college basketball) runs, if the game suffered horribly from lag the game would be terrible to play; thankfully fans don’t have to worry about too much lag at all, so be happy with the fact that you’ll be able to jump on and find a game whenever you want.

Graphically the game has its ups and downs, ranging from some awesome animations that make your players look like real people playing in a game being televised on your television to the excellent flowing fabrics of the jerseys. On the downside, however, the television announcers are pretty ugly, the characters aren’t all that detailed either, and there are some graphic bugs including being shot across half the court in the blink of an eye and having your jersey fabric practically move through you. In terms of audio the crowd work is outstanding and the sound of basketballs swishing through nets, rattling rims, and other such sounds are also great. The not so great audio things include some terribly poor commentary lines that repeat themselves too often (sometimes saying the same thing two times in a row) and even instances where the commentary gets things wrong, such as saying a team might have a double digit lead when you just started the game and only have three points on the board. The hip-hop music during the menus is also a love it or hate it thing.

If you’re a college basketball fan, College Hoops NCAA 2K8 is most definitely your game of choice, as you’ll fall in love with it and really become invested in your quest to becoming the next great basketball coach. If you’re a casual sports fan you might find yourself enjoying the game much like myself. Really, when it comes down to it, College Hoops NCAA 2K8 is a great basketball game that brings to life the sport like no other game before, and the only thing hampering it is some poor technology problems on the graphics and audio front. I can’t wait to see if 2K Sports fixes the problems, as next year’s game could be truly amazing.

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