Wayback Wednesday: Classic Teams in College Hoops

This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! From retrospectives of basketball games and their interesting features, to republished articles and looking at NBA history through the lens of the virtual hardwood, Wednesdays at the NLSC are for going back in time. This week, I’m taking a look back at the classic teams in the College Hoops series.

It’s well-known that EA Sports included a variety of classic teams in their college basketball video games, in no small part because they ended up being the catalyst for Ed O’Bannon’s lawsuit against the NCAA. Their infamy arguably overshadows the inclusion of classic teams in the College Hoops series, but 2K’s games did indeed feature a complement of historical squads as well. Considering my current preference for indulging my nostalgia and passion for basketball history, they’re an incentive to consider spending more time with the two College Hoops titles that I own!

Time will tell if those games will crack my rotation. As far as their NBA counterparts are concerned, I do enjoy NBA 2K7, but I’m not a fan of NBA 2K8. For now though, let’s talk about the historical content in the College Hoops games. As you may expect, there’s a generous selection of retro squads spanning decades of college basketball history, though the array of teams did change slightly every year. So, what were the classic teams in College Hoops like, and why didn’t they lead to the same controversy that befell EA’s NCAA titles? Let’s take a look back…way back…

According to my research, the first game in the College Hoops series to feature classic teams was ESPN College Hoops 2K5. It wasn’t the first college basketball video game to include throwback squads – NCAA March Madness 99 had boasted 20 retro teams some six years earlier – but it did feature a large selection of them; 71 to be precise. Ranging from the 1947 Holy Cross Crusaders all the way up to the 2003 Syracuse Orangemen, the selection featured the 1982 North Carolina Tar Heels, 1979 Indiana State Sycamores and Michigan State Spartans, 1969 and 1972 UCLA Bruins, and 1990 UNLV Runnin’ Rebels, to name just a few of the most famous retro squads.

Of course, much like the classic teams in EA Sports’ games – and the contemporary collegiate players for that matter – none of the historical players in ESPN College Hoops 2K5 had real names and likenesses. This obviously made it much easier to implement retro content in college basketball games compared to NBA titles, where missing players and fictional stand-ins stick out like a sore thumb. Of course, all the players on the classic teams could be renamed the same as the current players. To that end, if you had the time and patience – or a custom roster from someone else who did – you could enjoy more authenticity when playing with all of those historical teams.

College Hoops 2K6 added a few more teams, including the national champions from the previous two years: the 2004 Connecticut Huskies and 2005 North Carolina Tar Heels. Just as NBA 2K6 featured Draft Class squads and four All-Time teams that were unlockable in The Crib, 50 of the classic teams in College Hoops 2K6 had to be purchased in the Campus Store. Unsurprisingly, the most interesting and appealing teams were among the unlockables! While this approach may not be to everyone’s liking – especially as it delayed the ability to customise those historical teams – it did reward enthusiastic players simply for spending a lot of time on the virtual hardwood.

Needless to say, now that content like this is often placed behind paywalls and pre-order bonuses, or exclusive to the card collecting modes with all of their predatory microtransactions, I’m quite nostalgic for old school unlockables! College Hoops 2K7 took the same approach, offering a small selection of classic teams out of the gate while the rest were available in the Campus Store. Six All-Time Conference squads were also added. Extra historical content never goes astray, but with so many of the classic teams being initially locked, it was also an effective way to immediately use players from those squads, such as Michael Jordan (or at least, his fictional stand-in).

That brings us to College Hoops 2K8, the final game in the series. As 2K proudly announced prior to launch, the game includes 90 classic teams, specifically 69 notable teams from years past, the six All-Time Conference teams, and all-time teams for 15 prominent schools. The classic teams from College Hoops 2K7 that were dropped were mostly from the 70s and didn’t feature many notable NBA stars, so I’d say they were expendable. Once again, a small selection of retro squads were available out of the box along with the six All-Time Conference teams, with the most popular and famous classic teams and the All-Time school squads being unlocked in The Shrine.

Without getting into a comprehensive breakdown of the lengthy lists of squads that were in all of the games, the selection of classic teams in the College Hoops series was very similar to EA’s NCAA series. Numerous champions and runners-up were accounted for, along with other noteworthy teams; particularly those that featured future all-time greats and other NBA stars. In addition to the aforementioned teams, there were the 1993 Michigan Wolverines featuring the Fab Five, Shaquille O’Neal’s 1990 LSU Tigers, Tim Duncan’s 1997 Wake Forest Demon Deacons, Patrick Ewing’s 1984 Georgetown Hoyas, and the 1983 Houston Cougars, aka Phi Slama Jama.

As in EA’s NCAA games, the classic teams in the College Hoops series have era-appropriate jerseys and branding, but the three-point line is present and in effect for teams that predate it. It’s a valid nitpick for enthusiasts who value authenticity, but personally, I’ll take an anachronism over leaving out teams from before the three-point era. Many of the classic players’ names are available in the game, which not only saves time typing them out while you’re editing, but also means there’s audio for them. This bank of names in College Hoops 2K7 and College Hoops 2K8 is actually a little larger than the ones in NCAA March Madness 08 and NCAA Basketball 09.

The ability to quickly edit player names from the Roster screen also speeds up the process of adding real monikers, and the full Edit Player function is a bit deeper than EA’s games. Several players have unsuitable faces and there are some incorrect jersey numbers here and there, but the ratings are generally accurate, and legendary players quite often only need their real names to be added. As such, the framework is there to assemble accurate retro rosters fairly swiftly. It’s still time-consuming, as there are a large number of squads and many corrections to make. Still, with the right resources on hand, an afternoon of diligent work should leave you with several complete teams.

So, how did Take-Two avoid getting in hot water over the classic teams in College Hoops, while EA Sports found themselves co-defendants in a lawsuit? After all, Ed O’Bannon’s 1995 UCLA Bruins were regularly featured among the games’ historical squads. Furthermore, his stand-in on that team clearly resembled him, from his height, weight, position, and jersey number, to having a shaved head and shooting the ball left-handed; all features cited as evidence that NCAA Basketball 09 had essentially used his likeness without permission. Once again, just as in EA’s games, it was very clear who many of the stand-ins were supposed to be, even with their generic faces.

Luck and timing would appear to be the biggest factors here. Neither 2K nor EA were secretive about the inclusion of historical content in their college basketball games. They openly announced it during the preview season, and again, the stand-ins were obvious enough for gamers to easily rename them if they so wished. However, the College Hoops series ended with 2K8, whereas EA’s series and partnership with the NCAA continued with NCAA Basketball 09; the game that alerted Ed O’Bannon to the unauthorised use of his likeness. With the College Hoops series coming to an end, its barely-disguised unlicensed alumni either went unnoticed, or were now irrelevant.

Had there been a College Hoops 2K9 – and I know that I’m teasing a lot of people with such a suggestion – there’s a chance that the series may have likewise come under fire for its classic teams. Had 2K followed that up with a 2010 season release as EA did, it seems a safe bet that they too would’ve removed the retro content to avoid any issues. In hindsight, it’s astonishing that both companies got away with including such obvious stand-ins. Granted, there was more plausible deniability than Konami straight up using the actual faces of Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, and Shaquille O’Neal on Roster Players in NBA in the Zone 2, but EA and 2K were definitely dancing the line.

It was certainly to our benefit that they did. While I’m sure that the main draw for most college basketball gamers was adding contemporary players and leading their alma mater/favourite school to victory, retro content is always appealing. In some ways I prefer the approach that NCAA March Madness/NCAA Basketball took with having all of the historical squads immediately playable. If nothing else, it meant that we could start editing those teams sooner. Unlockables that essentially rewarded you for being hooked on the game were great though, and there was novelty in making them accessible through interactive areas such as the Campus Store and The Shrine.

Additionally, when purchasing the classic team pennants to unlock them, there’s a blurb that discusses their achievements and explains why they’re a historic squad. I love it when basketball video games include trivia, records, and so on. It makes them another way to learn about hoop history, and I’d suggest that most of us who grew up playing basketball video games definitely gleaned a few facts from them. Displaying these blurbs during the process of unlocking the classic teams also ensures that they weren’t hidden deep in the menus, thus increasing the chances of them actually being read. It underscores how the inclusion of classic content should celebrate history.

Obviously, the classic teams aren’t the only reason to revisit games in the College Hoops series nowadays. Many gamers still love playing through multiple seasons or staging tournaments with the contemporary rosters, and a dedicated community kept updating College Hoops 2K8 for many years. However, it doesn’t get much better than classic teams when it comes to bonus content and unlockables, and the selection of squads facilitates some iconic historical showdowns, as well as interesting inter-era matchups. If you’re a retro basketball gamer who hasn’t already unlocked all of the classic teams in your favourite College Hoops title, then add that to your To Do list!

Because I’m a much bigger fan of the NBA than I am college basketball, I’ll admit that the classic teams are of greater interest to me. I may not have followed many of the all-time NBA greats since their amateur days – even if I’m old enough to have done so – but my familiarity with them still outweighs any nostalgia I have for college teams from the mid 2000s. With that in mind, I’ll reiterate a point I made when I profiled the classic teams in EA’s NCAA series, and note that failing to license current and former NBA players for the retro squads was a missed opportunity for College Hoops. On the bright side, it wasn’t as costly of a decision for Take-Two as it was Electronic Arts!

Still, I’m glad that both companies pushed their luck with the historical content in their college basketball games, allowing us to fill in the blanks ourselves. Clearly it had consequences for EA – and it seems likely that 2K would’ve suffered them too if they hadn’t discontinued the College Hoops series when they did – but it sure worked out for us, as those classic teams are another incentive to revisit some memorable titles. As for the future, if 2K does end up bringing back the College Hoops series, I hope they include classic teams complete with players that they’ve licensed for NBA 2K. If that’s at all feasible, then history suggests that content is bound to be a hit.

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