NCAA March Madness 07

EA Sports

$29.95

With the University of Southern California enacting some payback for their Rose Bowl loss, showing UT the door in an embarrassing 87-68 drubbing, and the Jody Conradt-coached women’s team not even making the NCAA tournament, local college hoops fans have no option but to take a crack at leading the Longhorns through their own March Madness, courtesy of EA Sports’ NCAA March Madness 07. Filling Rick Barnes’ shoes is not an easy task, even with the obscenely talented Kevin Durant onboard. Guiding four starting freshmen to the promised land is a Herculean task in real life, and that also holds true for coaches holding a PlayStation2 controller instead of a clipboard. MM 07 gives players all the tools they’ll need to take full control of their teams and either lead them to the National Championship in Atlanta or back to their mom’s dinner table for some humble pie. New features this year include finding the hot hand: Go on a big run, and once the momentum meter gets high enough, activate the Go-to-Guy; he’ll gain a temporary ratings boost to help put the bad guys away for good. It’s hard to tell the difference between video games and actual television coverage these days, and this holds true here. MM 07 features commentary from Brad Nessler and legendary hoops guru Dick Vitale and audio and visual enhancements with custom fight songs and crowd mayhem. All of these elements more than deliver, as does the exceptionally impressive gameplay and AI that keep the ballin’ close and exciting. Blow outs get real old real fast, but that’s no cause for concern here. EA again comes through with top-notch graphics (even on the PS2) leading to much jealousy on the part of NBA Live 07, which has been sitting patiently in its box since the arrival of MM 07. Like last year’s inaugural MVP 06 NCAA Baseball game featuring UT’s David Maroul on the cover, NCAA March Madness 07 doubles as an excellent forget-me-not for local Horns fans with Durant almost certainly going pro next season.

This article appears in March 23 • 2007.

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