Coach K College Basketball

Game is in great shape and it plays with no trouble. The lack of college teams may hurt it in the long run, but the game play makes up for it. It's pretty much an NBA Live 95' in college hoops form. I'm definitely happy with it. I do remember playing the game when it first released about 20 years ago or so.

College basketball games on consoles were more or less nonexistent before Coach K, and no game of that era captured NCAA basketball better than this effort from EA Sports. Intended to be the start of a franchise like Bill Walsh College football two years earlier, Coach K only got one memorable edition, but it was worth picking up for any Genesis-owning sports fan. Featuring 32 college teams from 1994, the omission of a few biggies (Iverson's Georgetown team, for instance) is frustrating, but the inclusion of several all-time great squads (e.g. 1968 UCLA, 1982 UNC) make up for it. With the ability to play a full season or set up a 32-team bracket, plus nice visual touches like the use of the same chyron font CBS used at the time, there are plenty of nice touches. Coach K was a good enough game to stand out even during the heyday of EA Genesis games (PGA Tour, Madden, NHL, etc). Its angled, isometric view distinguished it from EA Sports' earlier NBA offerings like Lakers vs. Celtics. The gameplay hasn't aged quite as well as EA's football games, but it still holds up for the most part. It's a shame that we didn't get Coach K '96 or '97, as this had the makings of a great franchise. Genesis sports fans who fondly remember guys like Corliss Williamson, Cameron Dollar, or Lou Roe would be remiss to pass up this very good, if imperfect, snapshot of mid-90s college basketball.