Although it's been slightly obscured by the start of the NBA season and the increasing action in the NFL, the men's college basketball season is about to kick off. Teams are playing in preseason tournaments and exhibition games, preparing for what's sure to be a long, grueling season. Although many teams are just playing for a respectable showing in their conference, all of them have their eyes on one prize: a trip to the Big Dance. Every year, 65 lucky squads get a chance to compete for the national championship, playing their hearts out for as long as they can stay alive. It only takes six wins to capture the title, but you've got to make your way through some of the best teams in the country.

While it's far too early to start filling out your office pool brackets, EA figures that this is the perfect time to get you pumped up for the coming season by releasing NCAA March Madness 2005, the latest in their increasingly popular college hoops series. In many ways, March Madness is similar to its cousin, NBA Live 2005, especially when it comes to the core gameplay. Nearly all of the controls are the same, from your standard pass and shoot buttons to the utilization of the right analog stick to perform stylistic juke moves. NBA Live's new rebounding system has made it into the game as well, so you can now choose what to do with ball when you're crashing the boards. At the press of a button, you can try to tip the ball in, go for the powerful follow-up dunk, or grab it and toss it back out to reset the offense. There's one major addition to the game, however, that reflects an element that is becoming increasingly unique to the collegiate style of play.


If you watch NBA games, you've probably noticed that there is a greater emphasis on one-on-one play, as opposed to the running of set plays. Sure, you might see a coach calling out a play during crunch time, but that is usually to ensure that the team's best shooter gets the ball when it matters most. During the rest of the game, however, the ball is frequently passed around a few times, before one player decides to challenge his defender. This is not the case in college ball, where coaches rule the roost and players have to follow their instructions to a T. It's nice to see, then, that EA has decided to implement what's known as the Floor General Play Calling System, which allows you to call, set up, and execute a play without altering the flow of the game.

Using the Floor General system is amazingly simple, even for those players who don't know the difference between a weak side screen and a screen door. When bringing the ball up the court, simply press the D-pad up, and you'll see three different offensive formations appear. You can select one of these by pressing the D-pad in the corresponding direction, or you can press up again to bring up three more offensive sets. After you decide, pressing the right thumbstick will show you where to set up, and which player should receive your pass. At first, figuring out how plays were supposed to be run was a challenge, as you can only see the first step of the play. However, once you figure out what to look for (a player curling around a screen or your big man wide open underneath, for example), you'll have no problem putting the ball in the hoop.