NBA 2K16 News Post

Could NBA 2K16 be Implementing College Hoops?

12:45 AM - June 8, 2015 by DustinT

Spike Lee is going to take NBA 2K16 to another level with his inclusion in the game’s MyCareer story mode. Story is everything, after all.

My Career is going to follow the world of your player (Ronnie 2K has confirmed “Frequent Vibrations” is not your only option) as he continues his hoops journey in high school. That sounds great, but what’s the real underlying question here? NBA rules state that a player cannot jump straight to the pros.

All three of the covers released for 2K16 feature the star from their college days: Steph Curry at Davidson, Anthony Davis at Kentucky and James Harden at Arizona State. Could college hoops, after eight years and one console generation, be returning to the PlayStation and Xbox?

There’s also the potential of walking in Emmanuel Mudiay’s footsteps, and playing overseas after high school.

Either way, with the option to play overseas or choosing the length of your college career, simulation would be taken to the next step for sure. And Spike Lee is definitely the kind of guy that could make this happen.

Here’s to College Hoops. I hope.

Game: NBA 2K16Reader Score: 8/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PC / PS3 / PS4 / Xbox 360 / Xbox OneVotes for game: 45 - View All

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Member Comments

# 21 georgiafan @ 06/08/15 12:44 PM

It would be amazing if they could do just the NCAA tourney that way they would just have to get 63 other teams. It might be lame and wouldn't be official NCAA but still would be great.

# 22 Captain Fear @ 06/08/15 12:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Turbojugend


	Two Words: Ed O'Bannon.

The NCAA and these game companies screwed up everything. All you had to do was make everyone in these games have the wrong jersey number or wrong skin tone. No one could've ever said that the games were using their likeness if it was that way. I'd be pissed too if these companies were making all this money off my likeness and I didn't see a dime.

# 23 23 @ 06/08/15 01:03 PM

Would be dope though if we could ever do a full customed tournament in 2k in between HS (which no one has tapped into) and the NBA. Even throw in your own team usa for the euro league teams...

Which makes he hope we have CAT this year.

# 24 King_B_Mack @ 06/08/15 01:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Turbojugend


	Two Words: Ed O'Bannon.

Honestly I don't think even Ed O'Bannon is affecting them doing a game now. The NCAA and it's member schools have always been free to make games and they wouldn't have to pay the players a dime. The NCAA tournaments, schools, conferences, etc. could be put into a game right now with completely random players, names, faces, jersey numbers, etc and there's nothing a player/former player could do about it. The problem lies with video game companies determining that it's not worth the cost of the license and cost of making the game to attempt this however. I've always maintained though, that these companies piss poor marketing practices for college games are the single biggest reason they didn't sell more copies.

# 25 ehh @ 06/08/15 01:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by georgiafan


	It would be amazing if they could do just the NCAA tourney that way they would just have to get 63 other teams. It might be lame and wouldn't be official NCAA but still would be great.

If we ever got some type of college aspect in NBA2K it'll be this. That way they can make on generic NCAA arena and have all the games there. I can't imagine them creating the venues and arenas for 25-60 college teams (whatever the number may be).

# 26 jfsolo @ 06/08/15 01:37 PM

Damn it. This has been in the back of my mind and I have been trying to push it away, so as to avoid crushing heartbreak later. Now this thread has create full blown hope and it won't go away until we hear a flat "no College Hoops integration" from the dev team.

# 27 HowDareI @ 06/08/15 01:45 PM

High School implementation would be "easy" to do...and I say easy as in no licensing and fictional schools.

College is a lot different, obviously it costs money even if you're gonna do just the final 4 or the championship game..because that's still 4 top schools....and obviously there's images of real colleges on the cover so I doubt they'd do something corny like use fake colleges...

We'll see though, not much info but it's fun speculating.

Would be cool to play through high school tourney's and maybe get your skills up through there before going through college or whatever they have planned.

# 28 2kNerd @ 06/08/15 01:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JUSTlFIED


	Not really considering the how the NCAA has been ruining things

Let's be honest....LAWYERS ruined this.

The athletes who were talked (conned?) into suing the NCAA as received maybe a couple hundred of dollars from "winning" the lawsuit.

The real money went to the law firm who represented them. It's actually kind of sad. Some of these young men probably thought they were doing the right thing. All it really did was make a bunch of lawyers rich(er).

# 29 2kNerd @ 06/08/15 01:59 PM

It seems like some people seem to think cost or money would be the issue here, but what if 2K is so flush with cash from VC sales that it gave them the ability to add college licenses to the game?

This is why when I see people complain about the "money" game modes and how "greedy" 2K is, I laugh. They don't even realize that the more money 2K makes selling digital in-game currency, the more money they have to improve the game.

# 30 @marcusjiles @ 06/08/15 02:37 PM

This mode is pretty easy to do in regards to its foundation, I dont know why potentially they have to make it harder on themselves and make it less enjoyable. The key to a mode like this is options. Endless options. You flood the user w/ options. You dont restrict them in a story you can only play once with binary good guy/bad guy options that really dont change the story.

You give a player pre-draft workouts, the draft, the season, offseason activites as the base. But you load up o options such as growing your player's personality, what exact skills he has, endorsement deals from shoes to local, to and more engaging social media platform. But you dont (like we saw last year) give a story in which you limit yourself through the same lines recorded (w/ terrible acting) from a player on every team.

If I want to bring in my own roster, you let me. Matter of fact, you dont even need voice acting. It would make it shiner, but this mode, or modes like it doesnt need it. The experience and value comes from making a player your own and giving him the experience any NBA gets to have.

# 31 georgiafan @ 06/08/15 03:15 PM

If they are going to do a college tournament or some sorts which is unlikely since all the legal stuff and teams would have to be worked around. Maybe they could have you face off vs real life people that will already be in the game and just fill out the roster with generic people. Several people from teams like Kentucky, Duke, Wisc, etc will already be in the game.

# 32 Junior Moe @ 06/08/15 03:16 PM

I think that College games are better made for the Ultimate Team experience. There are way more players and teams to choose from. Instead of every team having the same 5 or 6 top players in the league. Then the college version of a player would vary from their pro selves. For instance, Tyler Hansborough would be a better collegiate player than Paul George even though George is clearly the better pro.

# 33 BA2929 @ 06/08/15 04:00 PM

I have a feeling this isn't going to have any gameplay involved with the colleges and it'll just be the game referencing where you went to school more in the cutscenes.

Right now you pick your school and that's it. The game never references it again outside of the draft cutscene. It'd fit in well with having Clark Kellogg as an analyst too, since he basically only does college games anymore.

---

However, I would love to see a small NCAA tournament though, similar to what they had back in NCAA Football when you played the high school football playoffs.

For example, the mode starts with your team in the Sweet 16 automatically (They could get around this by calling it something else, if they don't want to get NCAA licensing). You're the star and each game you have to matchup with a guy from this coming draft. You play the 4 games and each game your stock rises in the NBA Draft. If you lose, which is possible, you have to do well in the draft combine. I guess the "combine" would just basically a few scrimmages against other draft people as I think Mini-games to decide overalls in sports games are lazy. Plus I just want to play the game. The "Combine" would be sort of the same thing as the Rising Stars game, but that game is old and tired and needs to go away. They could throw in some NBATV graphics for this.

They could also implement this in the Euroleague side too, just swapping out the teams and saying you went to Europe out of High school. They already have the teams and the players, so I wouldn't think it'd be too difficult to have a fake Euroleague playoffs system in place.

You could go a lot of ways with the story doing something like this as well. Like agents trying to get to you in cut scenes, random dudes trying to be your friend to get cash from you when you "make it", etc.

# 34 ccoaxum @ 06/08/15 06:22 PM

I think the story might be cool since its Spike Lee but i'm not just a fan of the basketball games being pretty much scripted during certain parts of the season, not a fan of everyone having the same story as my player, rather have more control of my story.

# 35 whitejacob43 @ 06/08/15 06:43 PM

Pls 2K, this would be awesome.

# 36 ccoaxum @ 06/08/15 06:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by @marcusjiles


	This mode is pretty easy to do in regards to its foundation, I dont know why potentially they have to make it harder on themselves and make it less enjoyable. The key to a mode like this is options. Endless options. You flood the user w/ options. You dont restrict them in a story you can only play once with binary good guy/bad guy options that really dont change the story. You give a player pre-draft workouts, the draft, the season, offseason activites as the base. But you load up o options such as growing your player's personality, what exact skills he has, endorsement deals from shoes to local, to and more engaging social media platform. But you dont (like we saw last year) give a story in which you limit yourself through the same lines recorded (w/ terrible acting) from a player on every team. If I want to bring in my own roster, you let me. Matter of fact, you dont even need voice acting. It would make it shiner, but this mode, or modes like it doesnt need it. The experience and value comes from making a player your own and giving him the experience any NBA gets to have.

Exactly that's what i want them to do with this mode.

# 37 janmagn @ 06/09/15 04:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BA2929


	I have a feeling this isn't going to have any gameplay involved with the colleges and it'll just be the game referencing where you went to school more in the cutscenes. Right now you pick your school and that's it. The game never references it again outside of the draft cutscene. It'd fit in well with having Clark Kellogg as an analyst too, since he basically only does college games anymore. --- However, I would love to see a small NCAA tournament though, similar to what they had back in NCAA Football when you played the high school football playoffs. For example, the mode starts with your team in the Sweet 16 automatically (They could get around this by calling it something else, if they don't want to get NCAA licensing). You're the star and each game you have to matchup with a guy from this coming draft. You play the 4 games and each game your stock rises in the NBA Draft. If you lose, which is possible, you have to do well in the draft combine. I guess the "combine" would just basically a few scrimmages against other draft people as I think Mini-games to decide overalls in sports games are lazy. Plus I just want to play the game. The "Combine" would be sort of the same thing as the Rising Stars game, but that game is old and tired and needs to go away. They could throw in some NBATV graphics for this. They could also implement this in the Euroleague side too, just swapping out the teams and saying you went to Europe out of High school. They already have the teams and the players, so I wouldn't think it'd be too difficult to have a fake Euroleague playoffs system in place. You could go a lot of ways with the story doing something like this as well. Like agents trying to get to you in cut scenes, random dudes trying to be your friend to get cash from you when you "make it", etc.

Why fake playoff system? Thet have the Euroleague license, which should cover it as well

# 38 iTofu @ 06/09/15 09:54 AM

Honestly, I'd rather have the option to go to Euroleague or China than go to College. I always wondered why more players didn't do that. Get that cash now!!! Especially given how you never know how small your window is for being lucrative in basketball. I suppose Jennings and Mudiay may have been drafted higher if they had been in the NCAA.

Then get drafted by the 76ers and stay there for a while, so the Sixers can continue being a terrible team acquiring draft picks and assets... lolol Joking about that part.

# 39 Pokes404 @ 06/09/15 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iTofu


	Honestly, I'd rather have the option to go to Euroleague or China than go to College. I always wondered why more players didn't do that. Get that cash now!!! Especially given how you never know how small your window is for being lucrative in basketball. I suppose Jennings and Mudiay may have been drafted higher if they had been in the NCAA. Then get drafted by the 76ers and stay there for a while, so the Sixers can continue being a terrible team acquiring draft picks and assets... lolol Joking about that part.

Simply picking up and moving to an entirely different country isn't a quick and easy process. You're moving far away from family, you're completely on your own in a foreign culture, and you're playing against professionals in their 30s instead of other 20 year old kids. It's already a big enough jump from high school to college ball, it's even tougher in the Euroleague. You might get buried in the rotation overseas instead of getting to be the main guy on a college campus.

Meanwhile, you could stay in the states, remain close(r) to friends/family, go to school for free, make a name for yourself by being on TV in the US all the time, make it easier on NBA team scouts/executives to come watch you play (Marcus Smart and Markel Brown played at Oklahoma State and there was someone from the Thunder at nearly every game, including Durant a few times), and if you're really good, it's only for a year or two.

Euroleague is definitely a viable option for some people, but there's a little more to that decision than just play for free vs get paid to play.

# 40 BA2929 @ 06/09/15 04:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by janmagn


	Why fake playoff system? They have the Euroleague license, which should cover it as well

I was thinking they'd just skin the Euroleague over the NCAA portion of the game to make it easier on them. Since the Euroleague doesn't have an NCAA Style tournament and all.

I suppose they could just rig the Euroleague side of it so you only play the Euroleague finals. Wouldn't be that difficult I suppose.

To be honest, I really didn't put much effort or thought into that portion of the post. I'm actually surprised anyone read it lol

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