College Classics from EA Sports ‘NCAA March Madness’ series is a blast from the past

Before it was discontinued, EA Sports’ NCAA March Madness was a memorable series. You could invite your friends over and cook them with SG #4, dunk on them with C #45, or even throw alley oops to SF #31. These games are relatively simple when you compare them to the current NBA 2K, or even NBA Live.

Gameplay aside, what makes the game memorable are the various game modes. You could play as a team of mascots or make a dynasty mode and have to worry about everything from recruiting to worrying about your coach report cards.

There was even something called Frat Party Tournament mode:

The coolest game mode, however, was the College Classics mode. In this game mode, you were able to go back in time and play as classic teams in classic moments. The Shot, David vs. Goliath, and A Smart Shot are just a few of the classic basketball scenarios that you are challenged to play. As a kid, I remember being fascinated with the historic moments and decided after all those years to revisit the hallowed game mode. Looking around my apartment, I could only find NCAA March Madness 2005 and 2007, so these two will just have to do. Let’s get started, shall we?

Disclaimer: For those of you who are not familiar with the game, you don’t have to recreate the moment exactly. So instead of having to hit “The Shot” with Christian Laettner, you just have to win the game.

Challenge teams: ‘83 Chaminade vs ‘83 Virginia

Playing as: Chaminade

Difficulty: Hard as hell

Video:

Summary: First off, it’s a terrible Chaminade Team ...

... against a video game Ralph Sampson who is a 99 overall, including 99 on FG (HE LITERALLY DOESN’T MISS). Your only chance is getting him off the court because he blocks every shot in the lane. Everything.

To win, I had to sub the center in as the point guard and post him up the entire game. I also had to press. I’m not proud of it ... but after 29 tries I don’t care. Also, unlike most of the other College Classics, you have to play all 20 minutes of the game instead of just a short period of time. There is little room for error, and whatever strategy you decide, you have to stick to it for the whole game. Some people went through significant parts of their childhood trying to beat this level. Some never do, and I don’t blame them. Since this game is known as one of, if not the greatest, upsets of all-time it only makes sense that it’s hard in the video game. The gameplay doesn’t have your back, either.

Challenge teams: ‘83 NC State vs. ‘83 Houston

Playing as: NC State

Difficulty: Easy

Video:

Summary: You’re given just 42 seconds to make one basket. The only problem is that you have to get the basket over Hakeem Olajuwon and Phi Slamma Jamma. It shouldn’t take you more than four tries for this one as it would be a tougher challenge to have to play the whole game as NC State, given the roster mismatch. You do have someone with a three-point shooter icon on and a few dunkers, so you should be OK. It’s just a basket.

Challenge teams: ‘82 Carolina vs ‘82 Georgetown

Playing as: Carolina

Difficulty: Easy

Video:

Summary: It’s only one basket, and you have the terrible disadvantage of a 98 overall Michael Jordan at your disposal.

How tragic.

Challenge teams: ‘87 Indiana vs ‘87 Syracuse

Playing as: Indiana

Difficulty: Easy

Video:

Summary: Under one minute to get one basket with a point guard with a three-point rating of 93 with no shot clock. Not that hard.

Challenge teams: ‘92 Duke vs ‘92 Kentucky

Playing as: Duke

Difficulty: Medium

Video:

Summary: The hardest part about this classic comes from the limitations of the gameplay itself. If you try to throw the ball too far, it will sail over the player’s head. If you throw it too short, you might be out of range to make a play. If you throw the ball deep and the player has to jump to catch it, the jump animation takes a second to catch up, which takes precious time that you don’t really have to spare. It might take you one try; it might take you 15-20. It just depends on how you execute the play. You also don’t have to score with Laettner. There are so many weapons on the floor, that this one isn’t that hard once you advance the ball.

Challenge teams: ‘95 Missouri vs ‘95 UCLA

Playing as: UCLA

Difficulty: Medium

Video:

Summary: You have to go 4.8 seconds down the length of the floor with no three-point shooters on the roster. You can take a couple of tries to see who can actually shoot. After that, you should have it down.

Challenge teams: ‘91 Duke vs ‘91 UNLV

Playing as: Duke

Difficulty: Not hard

Video:

Summary: You have to beat a stacked UNLV team, but with a little bit of strategy and a lot of threes (you have players who you can spam three-pointers with for the entire game), this one is actually a piece of cake. It’s low-key disappointing, but it is what it is.

Challenge teams: ‘89 Michigan vs ‘89 Seton Hall

Playing as: Michigan

Difficulty: Not Hard

Video:

Summary: You have two insanely good three-point shooters. You’ll be fine.

Challenge teams: ‘85 Villanova vs ‘85 Georgetown

Playing as: Villanova

Difficulty: Light Medium

Video:

Summary: You only have to watch out for the steals. This is a good defensive team. Patrick Ewing will be a monster in the post, and the lack of a three-point line makes it harder to counter the interior dominance of Ewing.

Challenge teams: ‘79 Indiana State vs. ‘79 Michigan State

Playing as: Michigan State

Difficulty: Medium

Video:

Summary: Larry Bird is going to drop buckets on you. It’s just going to happen. You have to power through. Luckily, you have Magic Johnson on your team, so it’ll be all right.

Challenge teams: ‘66 Kentucky vs ‘66 Texas Western

Playing as: Texas Western

Difficulty: Not hard

Video:

Summary: Kentucky’s starting center is 6’3, yo.

Dunk all over ‘em.

Challenge teams: ‘81 Notre Dame vs ‘81 BYU

Playing as: BYU

Difficulty: Not hard

Video:

Summary: This one is high-key boring compared to all of the other ones. You have 15 seconds to score a basket with a team that has a player who is 98 overall from three and 99 overall everywhere else. Yawn.

Challenge teams: ‘83 UK vs ‘83 Louisville

Playing as: Louisville

Difficulty: Easy

Video:

Summary: This seems like a fun challenge until you realize that you’ve been given the better roster.

Challenge teams: ‘89 Princeton vs ‘89 Georgetown

Playing as: Georgetown

Difficulty: Medium

Video:

Summary: You start out on defense ... which is virtually non-existent in the 2007 version.

Challenge teams: ‘90 LSU vs. ‘90 Loyola Marymount

Playing as: LSU

Difficulty: Medium

Video:

Summary: Yes, you have to go up against the high-octane offense of Loyola Marymount, but you have Shaq and Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf on your squad so it’s threes and dunks for days.

Even though his free throws are IMPOSSIBLE in this game.

Challenge teams: ‘93 Santa Clara vs ‘93 Arizona

Playing as: Santa Clara

Difficulty: Not hard if you spam with Steve Nash

Video:

Summary: This classic should be hard in theory, but they made Steve Nash a freakin’ 99 from three.

You can spam this all you want to victory. The Arizona team is good, but Nash is god-level from three. Spam away … I guess.

Challenge teams: ‘98 Ole Miss vs ‘98 Valparaiso

Playing as: Valpo

Difficulty: Medium

Video:

Summary: This is like “The Shot,” except you aren’t given as many weapons to work with. You have to get the ball to Bryce Drew. This makes the level a little bit harder, but it’s doable.

Challenge teams: ‘90 Duke vs ‘90 Connecticut

Playing as: Duke

Difficulty: Easy

Video:

Summary: It’s Duke… you’ll be fine.

Challenge teams: ‘94 Duke vs ‘94 Arkansas

Playing as: Arkansas

Difficulty: Easy

Video:

Summary: Look at this roster.

Enough said.

Conclusion: While the game mode was fun at the time, College Classics hasn’t aged that well. I wish there was a game mode in some of the recent basketball games that worked like this.

I would play the hell out of a game mode where I’d have to play as Tracy McGrady and score 13 points in 35 seconds.

Or take control of Robert Horry to hit big shots.

I love when a video game pays homage or shows appreciation to the classic moments that have happened in the sport before it. As a kid, the College Classics game mode was more than just playing a scenario. It was one of the catalysts that sparked my interest in the history of sports. I wish more video games brought back some version of this game mode — an ode to some of the great classic moments in sports history.

NCAA March Madness was a great game for the time period it was released in, but the overall game mode was affected by the simple, easy gameplay, and most of these challenges weren’t that challenging (when compared to the football ones, but that’s for another time). Many different video games have tried out the “time capsule” game mode and I’ll get to the ones that do all in dear time.

With this one, however, I wonder what classic moments would be on the game if it were around today?

The Carmelo Anthony championship? The Mario Chalmers shot? Dunk city? The possibilities would be endless.

I miss college basketball video games.