NCAA College Basketball 2K3 Interview

Feature Article

Submitted on: 10/31/2002 by Steve Noah

Operation Sports is proud to present our interview with Rob Jones, Project Manager of NCAA College Basketball 2K3.

GAMEPLAY

Operation Sports: Will this game include A.I. sliders?

Rob Jones: The biggest focus in making NCAA College Basketball 2K3 was making sure that the gameplay was just right; we spent a significant amount of time tuning the gameplay for it to be challenging and enjoyable for all users right from the start. However, knowing how much people are into gameplay sliders, it is foremost on our list of new things to implement for our next version.

Operation Sports: Will the announcers say the recruits’ names in legacy mode?

Rob Jones: All the recruits will have names generated from our extensive database of names, so you should expect all of them to have their names announced, if you have selected to generate names in the game.

Operation Sports: What are the major gameplay differences between NBA 2k3 and NCAA 2k3 ?

Rob Jones: Well, we spent a lot of time trying to ensure that the two games would play differently from each other. First of all, we implemented many of our moves differently, so that they have a total different feel; it’s pretty rare to see any of NBA 2K3’s animations in NCAA College Basketball 2K3. We have diving for loose balls as well as saving them from going out of bounds. Shot blocking feels very different than NBA 2K3 since our implementation was different. You can block shots as they are in the act of shooting, as well as upon release. However, most of the differences are based on trying to accurately reflect the college game, which I will get into a bit later.

Operation Sports: Will the game accurately reflect the college game? (i.e. faster pace, more zone, more passing, more 3pointers, etc.) ?

Rob Jones: I think we did a great job of capturing the college game. The game is definitely faster paced. We retooled the zone defense to be more effective at stopping certain types of offenses. The game now emphasizes passing, since there aren’t that many superstars that can truly break down a zone with individual moves. With the three-point line being closer, you can also expect more of those shots going in. Deadeye shooters such as Tom Coverdale from Indiana will make you pay dearly for leaving them open. We have a bunch of plays that purposefully will try to exploit the three point shot. There is even a double screen-play designed specifically to free a player for a wide open shot. The pace is more ragged, with Zone Presses playing a big part in the game.

Operation Sports: I have heard about players stopping to catch the ball on a fast break. Has this been fixed ?

Rob Jones: I had not heard about this issue, but just to be on the safe side I checked after reading this interview. I can safely say that I don’t see any players stopping to catch the ball unless they have a true reason to do so (like a player standing right in front of them or something).

Operation Sports: Are there motion type offenses with back door passes?

Rob Jones: Yes, we have a great number of plays in the game that will try to take advantage of multiple situations.

Operation Sports: Are there zone, full and half court presses instead of just man to man coverage?

Rob Jones: All those zones you mentioned have been included and we even went a step further. Instead of calling your zone presses from the playcall menu, we have separated that function out. Now, by going to your coaching settings, you can determine which Zone Press to run and when to run it. Therefore, you can set it to run after a made basket, or you can run it after any dead ball. Strategy plays more part in running it. This allows you to run any independent defense if your Zone Press gets beat.

Operation Sports: Can players who leave early for the draft be imported along with that years seniors?

Rob Jones: No, they cannot. We mimicked real life, by allowing players to declare early. However, the NBA requested that we only allow seniors to be exported to the NBA game.

Operation Sports: How is the atmosphere in the March Tournament different than the regular season?

Rob Jones: We have commentary that is specific to the NCAA Tournament and have gone out of our way to place the user in all the official venues that the tournament will be played in (for the next four years!). For example, this year’s Final Four will be played at the Louisiana Superdome. We have actually modeled it and other professional arenas so that your tournament experience will be authentic. There are a couple of Tournament venues that didn’t agree to be in the game, but we have most of the ones that have been announced.

Operation Sports: How many offensive plays are in the game?

Rob Jones: There are over 60 plays in the game. Each of the major teams has some team specific plays, but our major focus was to ensure that we covered as many of the different offense types as possible.

Operation Sports: Will the inability to back down players (nba2k3) be fixed?

Rob Jones: I am not sure how to answer this. Most people automatically assume that you are supposed to be able to back down a player in these games. However, moving a player from his spot is actually a charge, most of the time. You can be successful backing down players, based on ability, but you can’t do it every time in our game.

GRAPHICS

Operation Sports: Do the players still look like they are on steroids?

Rob Jones: No, we took you guy’s comments to heart and looked at our models and scaled them accordingly. And here, you guys thought that we don’t pay attention to OS.

Operation Sports: Is the Dean Dome modeled correctly?

Rob Jones: YES. I think you guys will be pleased with it.

Operation Sports: Will the game be based on the NBA 2k3 engine?

Rob Jones: Yes.

Operation Sports: Do players cut down the nets after winning a big game?

Rob Jones: Not this year. I like that idea, though, so it will go into our design for the next version.

Operation Sports: Will there actually be highlights in this version?

Rob Jones: I wish we had time to get those in. Our development schedule was extremely packed, so that is one of the features that did not make it in.

ONLINE PLAY

Operation Sports: How is online play? Are there plans for online tournaments?

Rob Jones: Online play is essentially like playing the game offline. It feels great both on PS2 and Xbox. We are proud to be the only online playable college game this year. There are already plans for Online Tournaments.

CUSTOMIZATION

Operation Sports: Are There Custom Schedules?

Rob Jones: We allow the user to increase or decrease their Non-Conference schedule difficulty, but we don’t give you the ability to fully schedule those opponents. We compromised on this one for sake of time.

Operation Sports: Can you red shirt freshman?

Rob Jones: Redshirts are part of the game, but implemented in an automatic way. In College ball, especially at the highest levels, Freshmen don’t sit anymore, they contribute immediately. We will redshirt players for medical reasons, so that you don’t lose a year of eligibility if your player gets hurt early in the season.

Operation Sports: Can you create a school?

Rob Jones: We had plans for a very in-depth Create-a-School mode, which would go further than what we have grown used to expect as a feature. We had some unique roleplaying features designed, which would make taking the reigns of your school very interesting. However, due to time constraints, we decided to hold off and improve our Legacy Mode and deliver the full experience next year.

Operation Sports: Can you create a prospect for scouting?

Rob Jones: You can create a player and take him into legacy, but we decided to just allow you to place them on your team. Our reasoning here was that most users would get angry if another team recruited their created player.

Operation Sports: Can you edit player’s names? If so, will the names of the players be changed again when you import them into NBA 2k3?

Rob Jones: You can edit player names to whatever you would like. Those names will remain the same, as long as there is a match for them in the NBA2K3 database. If there isn’t that player will get assigned a random name. If you pay attention to his attributes, though, you will be able to find him.

Operation Sports: In screen shots, players have uniform numbers that don’t depict realism such as # 39. As we know in college, the ones digit and tens digit may not exceed 5. Also, there have been issues in other games such as duplication. Have issues with the numbers been rectified?

Rob Jones: Those were early screenshots. Our rosters are accurate to the real teams now, and our generated recruits get assigned valid numbers.

Operation Sports: Will we be able to edit player numbers?

Rob Jones: No, you will not.

Operation Sports: Which attributes and player apparel can be modified?

Rob Jones: You can modify any attribute you would like. You cannot modify the apparel they wear, though.

GENERAL

Operation Sports: Are Mascots in the game?

Rob Jones: No, there aren’t.

Operation Sports: How many exact stadiums are in the game?

Rob Jones: We have over 50 exact stadium replicas in the game. Check out Cameron Indoor Stadium, the Carrier Dome and all the others that we put in there. The other schools have been assigned stadiums based on the type of arena they have. Therefore, schools that play in small gyms get an arena based on a small gym, etc, etc. Most of them will look correct for the most part, but not all of them are exact replicas.

Operation Sports: Are there any Pre season tournaments (i.e. Preseason NIT, Maui Invitational)?

Rob Jones: No preseason tournaments this year.

Operation Sports: Is there an NIT tournament after the season for teams that don’t make the NCAA tournament?

Rob Jones: We thought about including something of the like, but our primary goal was to make an NCAA licensed game, so we decided to make the focus of the game making it to the Big Dance.

Operation Sports: How do the High School All American games work? Is there any way to scout players that don’t make those games?

Rob Jones: Yes, the games are region based, so you get to scout two teams comprised of players from the correct regions for five weeks. The last week you scout the Sega Sports All Americans. This allows you to actually play with up to 120 of the top recruits in the country, to see whether or not they will fit your program. You may see a 7’1” center that you thought you just had to have, only to find out that he is not a very good player. This allows you to focus your recruiting efforts only on those players that you really think can make a difference for your program. However, you can scout any player projected to be in the Top 150 players in the country by just assigning your Assistant coach to have a look at him.

Operation Sports: Who are the announcers?

Rob Jones: The announcers are John Ireland and Tim Nevertt.

Operation Sports: Are there post season conference tournaments?

Rob Jones: Yes.

Operation Sports: Will there be school all time leaders in scoring, rebounding etc.?

Rob Jones: Sure there will be, but you have to track them on paper. Seriously, we ran out of time in trying to save those stats. We do track all career and season stats, though.

Operation Sports: Will there be a trophy room to keep track of all of our championships etc.?