In Memoriam

I am going to miss College Hoops 2K9 this year. I'm lamenting the fact that there is going to be another quality 2K college basketball sim for 2009. When I heard that 2K was not able to reach a licensing agreement with the Collegiate Licensing Company, I had to accept the fact that this was the end of an era -- at least for now.

I personally look at the yearly NBA 2K game that is released about a month before 2K’s College Hoops game the same way some people look at the NCAA Football series that's released a month before Madden: as an appetizer to keep my mind interested in a sport I enjoy until the real game (College Hoops) comes out. (Just to clarify, I look at NCAA Football as the main course and Madden as the dessert, but I am a college sports fanatic.)

I was lucky enough to sit in on a conference call interview with Erick Boenisch, the lead feature designer, and Rob Jones, the gameplay director for NBA 2K9. I was told by Erick that because the company was unable to reach a NCAA licensing agreement with the CLC for College Hoops, the company was able to combine forces to make NBA 2K9 the company's best basketball game yet. While I am glad to see that the extra staff brought over from College Hoops has paid off for the NBA game, I can’t help but feel a twinge of sadness for a series that I have had such a long history with.

I have been playing the College Hoops series since it was called NCAA College Basketball 2K3. This was back when the cover boy was Jay Maybe-I-Should-Not-Like Motorcycles-That-Much Williams. I feel confident in saying that for six years, College Hoops was by far the most underrated of all sports series -- that started on the last-gen systems. (I had to put in that qualifier because I fear the wrath of fanboys). I found it to be one of the games that I played more frequently than any other. This is due to the mix of rewarding replayability and the kind of unique experience that can only be had playing a great college basketball game. Probably because like many sports fans, I find myself partial to college sports.

All of that being said, I am not going to only say good things about the College Hoops series. In all honesty, it did not make the transition to next-gen as well as its professional counterpart. I am even going to go as far as to say that the franchise has taken a few steps back over the last two years (OK now I'm going to hear it from the fanboys), and was a few good years away from being considered a must-have title for any sports gamer. However, despite any of the changes that could have been made to improve the title, one aspect could have remained unchanged and I still would have been thrilled to purchase it every year. I'm referring to the core of the College Hoops series: the Career Legacy mode.

In my opinion, there was no better career or dynasty mode in sports games than the Career Legacy mode in the College Hoops series. Being forced to start at a non-factor program like the University of Tennessee-Martin and moving your way up the coaching ranks to eventually be able to pick whatever powerhouse team you want is a long and arduous task. It is also one of the most enjoyable assignments you will ever be given in sports games, far more rewarding than any professional sports game. This is also a comment on NCAA Football and why I get more fun out of that dynasty mode than Madden’s Franchise mode. Simply put, recruiting players beats the hell out of signing free agents.

Anyone can spend money on the best free agents, but to build a team and watch that group of incoming freshmen mature over the years and coalesce into a cohesive unit is exactly what I was talking about earlier when I mentioned rewarding gameplay experiences. It allows you the opportunity to root for your players in a much different way than playing the pro game. Have a blue-chip recruit that you wanted on your squad but instead he signed on with your bitter in-state rival? Circle that game on your calendar and crush him every time you see him on the court.

Coinciding with this is the fact that the one-loss elimination NCAA Tournament and conference tournaments offer a lot more drama than your average seven-game series. I can still remember having to win my conference tournament to guarantee a spot in the NCAA festivities with UT-Martin, only to make an improbable run to the elite eight Davidson-style. I was even able to win a championship with the San Diego St. Aztecs in my second coaching stop, before eventually doing something that Ben Howland has not done as of yet: put a banner in the UCLA rafters.

So let us all raise our controllers in memoriam to the College Hoops 2K franchise. We can all hope for a resurrection at some point. In the mean time, I wanted to write about what I wanted to see in the never-releasing College Hoops 2K9 -- unfortunately I am just way too busy playing NBA 2K9 right now to do that. It seems the extra staff really did pay off.

R.I.P. College Hoops Series