College Hoops 2k8, good times to be had. So I decided, hey, I like fun-time basketball, who doesn't. What's fun-time basketball? For me, fun-time basketball is fast-paced action, 24/7 full court press, tight D, fast breaks, athleticism galore, and a healthy dose of the 3-ball. The real-world manifestation of fun-time basketball is the Virginia Military Institute, holders of the highest-scoring offense in the nation and the philosophy of shooting the ball before they turn it over. Luckily, this applies in the game too! So I take control of VMI in Career mode, give my coach, Paris Yarbrough, a nice snazzy black suit with a team-color tie. Keep it classy, right? (On a tangential note,  last week at the big rivalry game at our college, the opposing coach was wearing khakis with a blazer, and a shirt that wasn't even tucked in. We didn't let him hear the end of it.) Dump all my initial points into recruiting, because, ya know, gotta bring in the talent. Start off my season, adjust the schedule to put in a little more fluff, and start on simming and recruiting. I usually always sim the small-school seasons because it really is just a stepping stone to a bigger job. The high-energy, high-flying tactics produce lots of points and a good amount of wins, and we manage to win the conference and pull in 20 wins. This is important, because we get points in the offseason for accomplishing these goals, and we can improve our coach with them. Get trashed in the NCAAs, so no big deal. We can't leave our job yet for greener pastures, since you have to be there for two years before looking at the coaching carousel. Next year, only graduate one player, so we roll again, 20 wins again, NCAA tournament again, get smacked down again. But, we have some job offers. It looks like we are headed for Boise St., but Connecticut pulls in a mid-major coach and we get to step in to head the Pepperdine Waves. This is absolutely as good of a situation as possible, we step into a situation where we don't lose too much, have a lot of rising seniors, so we get to bring in a full recruiting class of players who fit our system (Fast, athletic players, or sweet-shooting players, or better, a combination of the two. Lots of SFs). Furthermore, Pepperdine is in California, and with UCLA mostly occupied with the very best national recruits, we only have to fight off USC and Stanford for the good local recruits. More to come next post!