K_rob11's Blog - Operation Sports

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Monday, December 1, 2008

Just call me "Mr. Clutch"

Posted on December 1, 2008 at 11:18 AM.

(5)

This Saturday, I was finally able to start my JU dynasty in NCAA Basketball 09 and I had one hell of a first game against FSU. First off, when I read my email from the AD...it said that the Alumni was excited to have me as a coach and that if I win our home opener against FSU, they would provide me with some facility upgrades. I thought this was a cool incentive to have! Well, we jumped out to an early lead but we always went through a stretch where we would let them back into the game. We led most of the game....FSU didn't take their first lead until 1:30 left to play. I lost all momentum losing a 9 point lead in a matter of 60 seconds. Tony Douglas was killing us with some timely threes. He was quiet most of the game but took over in the final 5 minutes (this was very cool to see by the way). We were able to take the lead back with a big time 3pt play from our PG, Ben Smith. It was off a designed play and that made it even more sweet. So now, we were up 3 with 6 seconds left and FSU was inbounding. Somehow, Douglas got open for a three and I had to hustle over there with my SF Aaron Hardy because Smith was guarding him and out of position. I was thinking that if he got the shot off it was going in because that was pretty much how the game was going at that point (Douglas was hitting everything)....but Hardy was able to get over there and block his shot! We celebrate the win! ...plus we get that facility upgrade!

Now, I'll tell you what made this moment more intense than usual. I was playing with some serious pressure from my wife. I had 15 minutes to get ready for a wedding we had to go to (her boss' wedding!) and she was calling me from upstairs telling me that I better get ready soon (like now) and that WE BETTER NOT BE LATE TO THE WEDDING! Put it this way....if Tony Douglas would have made that 3pt shot and put the game into overtime, I wouldn't have been able to play the overtime period and would have had to shut the game off and lose all that hard work

. I don't re-play games (especially since I play 20 minute halves this year) ....so if I would have had to turn it off, i would have just simmed the game and I know it would have probably been a loss. Right after I blocked the shot I threw my hands in the air and saved my franchise, turned off the Xbox, threw on some nice clothes, and managed to get to the wedding on time! And I was STILL smellin' and lookin good for the Mrs.

I didn't have time to think about it while getting ready (was rushing hard to leave on time).....but I have to admit that I was thinking about my accomplishment during the wedding. I think it was one of my better moments!

Friday, November 28, 2008

You are a LOSER!

Posted on November 28, 2008 at 02:51 PM.

(6)

YEAH! IT'S FINALLY HERE! The final piece I have been waiting for to start my dynasty in NCAA Basketball 09. I got my rosters, settled on my slider set, and now the patch has arrived for 360 owners.

Going to get ready and start to build up the JU Dolphin basketball program to atleast a respectable one. I am hoping I can turn them into the "Gonzaga" of the South if you will, making them somewhat relevant in the college basketball world. While this has me very excited, my wife, for some unknown reason, doesn't share or even quite understand my enthusiasm....

I am not sure exactly when it all started.....but I have been a "loser" for quite some time now. Well I don't exactly think that I am such a loser at all. Infact, I have very high self esteem. You see, "loser" is a term my wife calls me whenever she is walking in on me when I am in the middle of one of my Dynasties, Legacies, or Career modes. Yup, she always seems to walk in at just the right moment:

- when I am staring at my roster: She walks in and says, "what are you doing? You are not even playing!" I try and explain to her that I am trying to figure out if I should bench Andre Miller because Lou Williams has been outperforming him by a longshot. But if I bench Miller, his morale will go down and he will become some sort of locker room cancer that I don't want to have to deal with for the rest of the year. I am trying to win a championship here! Not really listening to a word I just said, she starts to walk back upstairs quietly whispering the word, "loser"....I am not sure whether or not she meant for me to hear her, but I didn't have time to worry about it. I have too many things to worry about already. I am trading Miller away!

- when I am recruiting: Fictitious names, heights, weights, 40 times are all that are on my screen when she walks in this time. She kind of smirks and says, "what are you playing now?"

Me: "NCAA Football....I'm recruiting."
Her: "Oh, isn't that where you have to get guys to come to play for you?"
Me: "Yup, trying to get this guy to come to South Florida...he's 6'6" and runs a 4.1...can you believe that?! 6'6"!! He looks like he's narrowed it down to Georgia Tech, Georgia, and us!
Her: "Us?"
Me: "yeah, us....USF. That's who I coach now. We really need help at QB because Matt may be going pro next year, but I am really hoping we get this guy. He can really be something special! I have never had a shot with a WR of this caliber. Plus, he's from Florida...I have that advantage over Georgia and Geogia Tech. I am hoping he wants to stay close to home."

I turn around and notice that I have just been talking to myself. She had already made it up the stairs before I even finished talking about our program!

- when I am in the final minutes of a tight game: I'm Syracuse on the road against Duke and I have led pretty much the entire game in Cameron Indoor Stadium. Duke goes on a 8-0 run to cut the lead to 2 with 1:15 remaining. I have the ball trying to slow the tempo down. The Cameron crazies are rockin! As Johnny Flynn is dribbling the ball up the court for us, I gesture both of my hands with my palms facing down in a motion towards the carpet telling my team to slow it down. Greg Paulus steals an entry pass to the post and Duke is off to another fastbreak! I yell out, "GET BACK!". Paulus is streaking upcourt and passes to Scheyer in the corner for 3......its good! 11-0 run, Duke takes the lead with under a minute left and the Cameron Crazies are going wild. I shake my head in disgust and I literally make the "time-out" signal with my hands before pressing the "start" button on my controller. I start to talk out loud as if my team was right there in my living room while making some subs on the screen..."c'mon guys! stay calm, get it together....we have to score here....get the ball down low!....LET's GO!!".

I do all this not knowing my wife has been secretly sitting behind me. I didn't even notice her walk in the room (I sit in a chair directly in front of our tv with the couch behind me). She looks at me in awe wondering how I can be so intense over a video game against the cpu. She begins to make the "L" with her index finger and thumb and places it on her forhead and walks back upstairs to our room.

There are other moments when she has walked in and pointed out how much of a loser I am..... but I am going to stop here as I am starting to realize after typing all this that maybe she is right afterall. Sometimes I can't believe how immersed I get into these games. Now that games have started to include "player personalities", "team chemistry", and other intangible factors, I am starting to think that it will only get worse.

Maybe, I will just have to tone it down a notch. Yeah, I won't make the timeout signal with my hands when calling a timeout....have to admit, that does feel kind of "loser-ish". lol

It's a good thing she doesn't know what I think about while I am at work! Sitting here thinking about my next game and who I am going to start.....and how am I going to stop their top scorer. Thinking about the mistakes I made the previous night and the calls I should have made. Oh my, I am such a loser....

Monday, November 24, 2008

NCAA Basketball 09: Initial impressions

Posted on November 24, 2008 at 05:20 PM.

(3)

Well, I've had NCAA 09 for a couple of days now and I think that I've played through enough games to give my initial impressions of the only college basketball game in town for 09....or 2008(never quite understood why sports video games started to go the route of the automobile industry releasing their new product with the next year in the title ...but anyway...)

After playing a handful of games over the weekend, I can honestly say that I can see why many people here have been praising this game and why many have been bashing it. But luckily for me, the good out weighs the bad.

I'll preface by saying that I am a basketball junkie. I love playing, watching, and coaching it. No other game is in my console more than basketball games.....especially college basketball (and for the past few years especially 2k's College Hoops series). Once I usually get my hands on College Hoops, thats when I stop playing my football titles. Being on a little holiday budget this year, I had to trade in all of my games to get this title (NBA 2k9, Madden 09, and CH 2k8)....so I put alot of stock into this purchase....I was worried that it may not be worth it....

As many have already said, the floor spacing is great! It truly is. This opens the game up so much more and I definitly can see the difference after playing the hell out of CH 2k7 & 2k8. The player movement off the ball really stands out in this game and truly gives that college basketball feel. You see it with your players as well as the CPU players when they have the ball.....its pretty amazing.

I love the post game. Dynamic post play was the main feature last year iirc.......I am glad to see it back in this year. ONce you master all the post moves, it adds even more depth to the gameplay.

The playcalling system is great. It is much easier on the eyes than having the play diagram art on the court while playing....

I love the tempo meter and it is not overdone at all. This is something I have ALWAYS done while playing CH....now it just really matters!

Love the little things like the limited time you get in timeouts. I mentioned that I liked this in MM008....since you get a minute for full TOs and you have your 30 sec timeouts, you have to really plan ahead as to what you want to do during your timeouts. I just wish they gave you more options to do things during timeouts like:

- giving us the ability to choose a play out of the playbook to run out of the timeout...

- ability to call a press with press options (after next made basket, after dead ball, always, never, etc...)

- set player to player defensive matchups/ pressure (right now, its just gives you position double team options/pressure)

- choose a point of emphasis (like in CH 2k8)

All this would be nice to have the option to do during timeouts....it would make timeout usage more important than it just being a way to rest some tired players.....but maybe next year .

The graphics are GREAT! Some of the best I have seen in a sports video game on my 360 outside of Fight Night. Some of the animations are a joy to watch.....but there just aren't enough of them. 2k, i think, has really spoiled us in this department.

PLAYER NAMES DON'T APPEAR UNDER THE CPU PLAYER WHEN THEY HAVE THE BALL .....I HATE THAT.

The quick sub menu (when you press up on the d-pad during gameplay) does not include situational lineups...and you also cannot view fatigue or player fouls ....it makes it very difficult to make subs during the game. The best time to do it is during freethrows when there is no action going on....the only problem is that YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE QUICK SUB MENU DURING FREE THROWS!!

I love the ESPN College Basketball music to start the game...but i wish they did more of this type of stuff to enhance the presentation a bit. How about some ESPN graphical stat overlays? They can even have the score show like it does during an ESPN college basketball broadcast. I do like the fact that they pick out 2 key players to watch before the game (one from each team)....then after halftime they show the stats of those 2 players to see how they are stacking up against each other...nice touch there.

Presentation is lacking, but the atmosphere is great. One of the games I played over the weekend was Davidson (me) at Oklahoma. I kept hearing "boomer-sooner" and some other chants from the student section...it was great! I jumped out to an early lead and eventually completely took to crowd out of the game. The Sooners made their run and the crowd got louder and louder and it really sounded phenomenal when the Sooners hit a 3 to take their first lead of the game with like just over 2 minutes left in the game......my players never recovered ....but the atmosphere was great in that game.

Not too much to say about the Dynasty mode just yet. I will comment more once I really get deep into it.

But to me the beauty of the gameplay trumps all of this for me. Bottomline for me is that this game is fun, period. Once I realized how fun it is to play this game, I stopped "looking" for flaws and reasons why not to like this game.... and I stopped trying to compare it to CH 2k8. I am very happy with this purchase and I am sure the slider and roster gurus here on this fabulous site will make this game even better for me!