DJLinus

I remember posting this topic last year and it seemed that out of the three PS2 NCAA basketball games (Sega, EA, 989), everyone pretty much preferred Sega's. Is it still the best among this year's titles?

I've been jonesin' for a college basketball game and would like to pick one up. My biggest requirement, though, is that I have to be able to play as the University of Richmond Spiders. Which ones have that team?

Thanks.

Red Dog

I have a related question:

Are the 2003 games based on the current season rosters or last year's? I want the game with the championship Terps squad (Dixon, Baxter, Wilcox, etc).

MrX

current. Sega didn't release one last year and March Madness was horrible so you may be out of luck with that team. There was another college game but I don't remember what it was called and it wasn't any good anyway.

Red Dog

That is strange considering that the Sega offering has Duke's Jason Williams on the cover.

mrglass

I don't think you can feature current college athletes on video game covers.

DJLinus, if Richmond has a D-1 basketball program, they are in Sega's game. I remember reading a list of about 30 basketball programs that were not licensed for some reason or another, so EA chose not to put them in March Madness. But, Sega gave these schools a different name (e.g. Loyola University in Maryland is Maryland College) and included them in the game.

MrX

Yeah, you can't be a paid spokesman while your still playing under the NCAA. That's why no names are used in the college games also just #'s.

Face/Off

If you look at the covers for EVERY NCAA sports game, the athlete has already left school and turned pro. You can't use collegiate athletes' names or likenesses, thus why there are no names when you play -- just jersey numbers. If you go to an apparel store, you'll see that the jerseys with numbers that they sell don't even have names on the back of them.

Back to the original question: 989 Sports does NOT make good sports games anymore. The best NCAA hoops game out is NCAA College Basketball 2k3 by Sega Sports.

Red Dog

Yeah - I figured this (I knew that they did not have names on the jerseys in the game) but at the same time, I figured that since they were using his picture (after turning pro), it implicitly meant that the rosters were from the 2001-2 season. Kind of deceptive though since many would assume (like I have) that they were last year's rosters. They should put the famous coaches (Coach K, Gary Williams, Roy Williams, Jim Calhoun, etc) on the covers to avoid this problem in the future.

Oh well, the game sounds too good to pass up even w/o the Terps championship squad in it.

DJLinus

I remember reading that somewhere, too. Richmond's in the Atlantic 10 (and beat Stanford last night!!!), so hopefully they are all there on the game. It's not like a couple of years ago when they were in the CAA. I'll probably rent the game first just to make sure.

But now I have another question: Is there anyone/anywhere that does a service like PS2 Rosters for NCAA 2k3? I found a seller on e-bay who you can buy a memory card with accurate rosters, but they are pushing $30 with shipping (and I don't need another memory card). That is much more than what the PS2 Rosters guy charges.

mrglass

I saw this over on the Operation Sports forums:
http://www.geocities.com/scotty16/

You can download it if you have a sharkport...You might try emailing the contact person to see if they are accepting memory card mail-ins.


I checked last night and Richmond is definitely in the game.

DJLinus

Thanks for checking on Richmond for me. Also, thanks for getting me that guy's site - I'll have to contact him.