Sports games were passion projects back then. Made by guys you can tell love sports and making games.

2001-2007 was the golden age of sports games

Ahhhh the first college BBall game I ever played. Truly life changing. This was the golden age of sports gaming...we had so much to choose from. This series opened my eyes to the NBA 2K, NFL 2K, and even NHL 2K series. I loved them all and miss them dearly.

College hoops 2k8 is the final and greatest version. It had everything 2k5 had and more, including shot selection using the right stick. The coach dynasty was great, starting at a small school and working your way up through mid majors to the big time. Landing recruits and upsetting teams in the tournament was so much fun. I long for an updated college basketball experience like the college hoops series.

FINALLY! Thank the gods! I have found someone on KZfaq who thinks that 2K Sports’ College Hoops 2K5 is a ABSOLUTE MASTERPIECE! LET’S FREAKING GO, BABY! Edit: I hope you do a video talking about the series of other Midway Sports games like NHL Hitz, NFL Blitz, MLB Slugfest and Redcard 2003 really soon in future videos!

To be honest, all of the College Hoops games from 2k4 to the end with 2k8 were great. I bought every year and would play 7 or 8 years deep in legacy mode. This franchise truly got better every year. 2k8 was a masterpiece with 2k taking everything they learned from years before and finally putting it all together.

This was my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE Growing up,, I still have the case till this day.. 2K was on a MEAN streak throughout 05 and it was a time to be alive.. I only wish I understood the ins and outs the way I do now that I am older

I vividly remember buying this from a pawn shop for $5 back in the summer of 2011. I had so much playing it that summer. The loudness of the crowd, the replay camera. It was fire.

Played this with my dad so much. Great memories

I never thought I’d see the day that my favorite game would be talked about. Thank you sooo much

I remember this game. I played the hell out of it on PS2. I loved the way driving to the basket worked in this game.

I wish they never stopped making this game. I still play College Hoops 2k8 to this day. Hopefully they can get the legal side of things down one day and bring this back.

It's a damn shame how whenever we revisit these older titles we see so much more passion throughout the games from game design to presentation to game play. Today's AAA games feel so corporate & like they're just checking boxes. I've been playing games since the 90s. It's kinda sad to see where games are overall.

This game was amazing! I remember having that trilogy of NBA 2K5, NFL 2K5 and NCAA 2K5.

Such a good game. Fond memories of managing teams or throwing it on a projector and running exhibition games. Actually used to do that as a part of March madness! All that said the X factor here is that these games were truly made with love and attention to detail. So hard to find today.

I haven’t played this game in years! Definitely was one of my favorites, I need to bring it back out for old times sake! Josh Childress on the cover! What a classic!

Damn I miss the 2k5 Era of sports games I remember countless sleepness nights grinding these games, good times. Great video!

I got this game like a year ago for my old ps2 and I loved it at first sight. Since I couldn’t afford 2k8 for my ps3. But it’s better than a lot of ps2 basketball games

If you ever feel like your videos don't have any impact on your viewers, just know after watching this video the first time I ended up ordering a PS2 copy of this game. I can't wait to play it again. Thank you for another banger video bro. Much love.

Miss these games man, I used to get so immersed. Legacy Mode was crazy detailed

I'll never forget getting this, NFL, and NBA 2K5 all for 60 bucks at Gamestop. Looking back, I don't know how I survived 3rd grade without going to summer school for missing school or failing a subject lol. 2K5s, Live 05, Madden 05, San Andreas, Halo 2 lol. Don't even remember going outside that Summer either.

It’s Christmas 2004, and my 13 year old self wakes up to every single 2k5 game. NBA 2k5 is what we see in 2k24.. the only problem is, we aren’t able to build a prelude with no College Hoops in sight. Both games would see massive numbers. I pray for this. COLLEGE HOOPS 2K25

College Hoops 2K was OUTSTANDING. 2K7 is easily my all time favorite college basketball game and I'd make a case for it being my favorite all time favorite college game. Legacy Mode is easily the deepest Dynasty mode you will ever see. I'm not sure what led to them going away from ESPN (I'm presuming EA got it for their college football and I guess that ended it), but this video got me really curious about how 2K5 played. 2K7 is really good and I love how you get to start out at a smaller school and work your way up getting attention from bigger programs as you go. I'm doing a Legacy Mode now in 2K7 where I'm a year into it with Gonzaga after winning two National Titles with North Florida.

This was my favorite basketball game at the time. Back when all 2k games were 20 dollars. I bought this for my 14th birthday for the ps2.

Yes!! Finally! It was finally time you covered this underrated masterpiece, this game honestly has it all, and encapsulates the atmosphere of a college basketball game, and with an awesome ESPN package!

I remember creating a PG playing for Dayton and leading my team to March Madness as a freshman. I’ve been playing 2k since it’s inception back on Dreamcast.

I remember in sixth grade my aunt and uncle got me this game for Christmas on original Xbox. This shit brings me back man. Loved this game

I bought it recently on the OG Xbox and I still play it including NFL and NBA 2K5. Wish games like these can be backwards compatible with Today's Consoles. Amazing memories that sports fans can enjoy.

Just stopping by to say thank you for creating this page. I’m an old school sports gamer for life and I love learning the Ins and outs of these titles. keep up the amazing work brother

I would play this game for hours man, just watching this video gave me nostalgia. From recruiting a 5 star prospect to climbing the coaching ladder and getting hired by a school in a power conference actually felt like an achievement. Thanks for trip down memory lane and hopefully they make a college hoops game in the future. Let's go Grambling state!!!

You just got a sub for this one! I tell ppl about 2k college hoops all the time and they look at me like they have no idea 😂 2k8 was my favorite but all of them were good. The selection show was on point I use to watch it like I do in real life the presentation was just next level. I cant remember if 2k5 had it but when I seen I was able to recruit players by actually watching their H.S. games I fell in love with this franchise. Me and my boy use to pick teams from small conference in franchise mode and go at it trying to win the conference, recruits, and to get to the tournament. Played all night..wish 2k could bring this back it's much needed.

2k4 was just as fire as 2k5 tbh, i loved both of these games growing up and have so many hours on the franchise mode of these games. very slept on era

Another one! Thanks softdrink for showing these young boyz what real sports video gaming is.

Mid 2000's was really the golden era of sports video gaming

A College Basketball game today would be fun, taking a small school and making them into a legit Championship contender throughout the ever changing college landscape. Now with transfer portals where you try to convince your best players to stay instead of going to a major school, or keeping your coach from leaving for a better opportunity at a bigger school. Or you play as a player and enter the transfer portal with the team trying to convince you to stay, etc. So much potential in a college basketball game today, plus importing draft classes into NBA2K, it needs to happen. If EA is making a college football game again, then at least let 2K make a college basketball game.

Thank you for this look back at this game. Recently I've been taking a look back at PS2 games that supported the HDD to add to my collection. Granted that is a pretty short list for NA releases. This was one of a number of the 2K sports titles that had fully rendered replays if you had the HDD installed on your PS2. Without it, replays would be still images. That may not seem like much by today's standards, but the use official use of the HDD back then was short lived (unless you played a lot of Final Fantasy XI on PS2 back then, I still have my install file on mine). I don't plan to get all the sports titles that use the HDD, but wanted to get at least two of them as an example of the time period they came from. This video was helpful in making my selection. I've also pursued completing my collection of all 11 non-sports NA releases that supported the PS2 HDD.

Had this since it was new on OG Xbox. I still pick this one up every so often to start a new Legacy Mode. Many many many hours put into simulating decades and building powerhouses.

This is so great to see! This game is one of the first video games that I remember ever playing. It is a huge reason why I love college basketball and sports video games today

Thanks for bringing me back to a little snippet of my childhood. What an incredible game that I took for granted back in the day 😊

You didn’t mention how they already had all the players’ names in the game for the announcers to say during gameplay, you just had type it in yourself in roster mode. And If you just typed in “JJ”, there would already be ‘JJ Redick’ available to clicked and entered automatically. The predictive name text was awesome, especially for players with hard last names to spell!

NBA Live 05, march madness 05, madden 05, nfl 2k5, college hoops 2k5, mvp baseball 2005.........bro what was in the water in 2005? Game companies just ate that year with sports. I had NBA Live 05 and MVP Baseball 05. So fun.

SDTV back with another banger. I vividly remember this one as a youngster, incredible game and I miss the hell out of college sports titles. Would love to see you do a vid on MLB The Show 23. Cheers brother.

Thanks for always putting me onto these throwback classics

Not gone lie, sports gaming was in they’re bag in 2004. NFL 2k5, Madden 05, NCAA 2k5, Nba live 2005..all great games in my opinion

Sega went out on top. All of their swansong 2K5 games were absolutely amazing. Thanks for this retrospective.

Was bummed last week cause you hadn't covered this one and then here it is. Keep up the good work man

the ambient music on your videos are fire

The 2k8 version is the greatest ball game I've ever played and was the reason I kept my ps3

I exhausted what this game had to offer especially in the legacy mode, running UConn and UFlorida because guys from my high school played for them, #31 Rashad Anderson UConn & #32 Chris Richards UF. I had just made the basketball team in high school at the time so I was just fully immersed in this game until 2k8 came out which added the drills we ran at my school. All of this to say, I’ve been a day one 2k player in Dreamcast and the 2k5 era was definitely a golden era for 2k.🔥 That’s for highlighting this on 2k5!🙏🏾

I remember college hoops 2K8 being so incredible me and my friends in college would play for hours. I remember grabbing March madness 10 when it came out and the game felt so hollow, the arenas and the fans and the way played and the dynasty float itself. You could do an HD in Ross are update to call you to 2K8 and it would still be a great game

Great video SoftDrink. Loved this game. Keep up the good work man

I’ve been doing a Ole Miss dynasty on College Hoops 2K5. While I haven’t played the game for a few months, and there are a few issues I have with gameplay, this game is still pretty great.

Brings me back to high school in 2005. Thanks for this!

I miss 2k College Hoops. The coaching career mode was awesome.

I haven't played videos games in a few years but if they ever made a college basketball game again i would be all in on it!

Just watching this makes me sad. College hoops 2k8 was my favorite game and I remember when they announced 2k9 being cancelled. I never thought I'd be without a college basketball game for longer than I had been alive at the time I started playing 2k8. It's still a great game that is playable but it is dated. It was already in depth but it would have been such an amazing series if it had continued.

The legacy mode was the absolute best! I remember going in and naming basically every player in the power 5 conferences.... player.by.player. lol it took a long time, but totally worth it once you played your buddies and every player had their real name.

March madness 08 is also a underrated masterpiece

Remains my favorite era of sports titles. Soooo many options, and bangers among those options

I just bought this game bc of this vid. I’m loving it and now I’m searching for forum post from 2004 for good slider sets. Ha

I'm gonna watch whatever you put out. Review every old SNES football game, I don't care. Love your style man.

Amen to all y'all that agree! Such a great game almost 20 years later. Lmao I still remember standing in Walmart taken aback at the price. 20 bucks? Is this the right price tag? 🤣😭 Started a dynasty a couple months ago! So fun to get so caught up in the recruiting 💯

2k basketball was on fire in 2005 ESPN NBA 2k5 was the truth too

This was the second college basketball game that I played outside of the March madness title on Xbox. But this one takes the cake for me on PS2, I still have my copy of it and nba 2k5. Man I wish I had a ps2 just to go back and get lost in the game and memories again!

First off, LOVE LOVE LOVE your videos on the classic games i grew up on as a teen, its a much needed jog down memory lane each one! This may come off sounding real naive but how do people still play this on renders? I am very unfamiliar on how these things work but I hear you mention it in quite a few videos that you make. What would a layman video game user need for this to work and or have to get for it. If you respond to this I really really appreciate it. Even if anyone else takes the time to read and respond, thanks in advance! You rock!!

I remember buying this game for $20 brand new! It was sooo very good!

I was a 2k8 fan myself but 2k5 was great too

This was a damn good video!! Thank you !!

I just dug out my copy of ESPN 2K5…the OG XBOX version (my XBox is long gone) so I can’t play it anymore!😢 I have 2K8 on PS3, which I still have on hand so there’s that. 😁 Ahhh, the memories.

Top sports duos all time: 5. Babe Ruth / Lou Gehrig 4. Michael Jordan / Scottie Pippen 3. Joe Montana / Jerry Rice 2. Wayne Gretzky / Mark Messier 1. 2K and 2004

I spent MANY hours on this game on the ps2. Truly a great game.

College Hoops 2K5 was amazing! So many hours put into this game! Had one of my greatest video game moments using North Carolina and I'm mad at myself for not remembering who I was playing against but it was a back and forth game all the way thru, late in the game I would go down 5, then I go up 5, back and forth, back and forth, was down 2 at the end and was convinced it's over because these sports games are RIGGED sometimes (lol!), I inbound the ball, get it past half court and launch a deep three as time expires and BANG! Win the game by 1! Felt like a real f'n game at that moment lol!! So much fun! Bring College Hoops back!!!!!!

It's crazy I just purchased this game at a retro gaming store about a month ago. And that's a person who was an EA fan on greatly surprised by the great detail in the game from this year

Since you did this game, you should do NCAA 2K 3 probably the rarest game on the game cube

Something about this one has had me coming back to it every March since like 2018

LETS GOO SOFTDRINK

I turn off defensive three in the key in every basketball game. I don't know why I hate it so much when the allen iverson types can dribble from top of key into paint and layup with impunity but turning that rule off fixes the problem.

This is the only game I've been playing for the last three months. Classic

My favorite college basketball game of all time!

I still have this game on my original Xbox such fun memories playing this game sadly my original Xbox doesn’t work so I can’t play it anymore but I still have the disc for this amazing childhood game of mine !!! :)

Just finished a legacy on this game. Coach K was still coaching for 64 years and wouldn’t retire for my coach to coach at duke. Freaking robot tech in the 2040s. Great game, I just recruit players and sim the game. It’s like football manager but college hoops style.

I'm doing a legacy mode with VMI keydets right now. On the 3rd hardest difficulty. And I beat the #7 buckeyes opening game! 62-60 was up 14 with 2 to go and they came back and missed an open 3 and I won it. It was fun

I've never played it, but looks fun! NBA Live 03 is my favorite basketball game ever, it's amazing!

Probably spent 1 full year of my life so far playing this franchise over the years , still have my 2K8 even tho my 360 broke , Who's the best school to start a closed legacy with in this version???

Yup!! I remember that game!! ONE SHINING MOMENT

I still love College Hoops 2K5. The presentation is amazing and gameplay is very smooth. It’s the GOAT of college basketball games IMO.

just added almost all of PS2 college bball games, on steam deck, coming from Seattle so many people I knew played college hoops and the legendary teams Michigan 93 etc were added to the march madness series 06-07 then it stopped maybe cuz of law suit, but all-time teams stayed but the rosters were unbelievably were put together for this time,, amazed there is a community besides me that cares about this time,, hope we can get it back 2024-25

Looking forward to playing this just bought it after watching your video

played this as a kid - favorite basketball game ever tbh

College Hoop 2K8 is my favorite college basketball video game but 2K5 is second. Hopefully 2K will be inspired by EA bringing back NCAA Football and decide to bring back College Hoops.

I still play to this day, love it

Yes Yes Yes NBA 2K5 and CH2K5 were so much fun. Play calling, animations, coaching modes, replay system and so many other features were so amazing. Online play was amazing, lobbys and quick match setting was wonderful. The extras that could be unlocked by accomplishing certain statistical feats was/is the way gaming should be. Presentation from ESPN would take any avid basketball fan back to the mid 2000s. The two titles were/are must haves for sports game fans especially anyone who owns an OG Xbox to date. Hardhat guys like Childress and Wallace epitomize what these two ball games were about.

Just got this game today after watching this vid!

All of Sega's 2k5 games were bangers

One of my favorite games, 2005 in general a great time for sports games

I still keep my Xbox 360 hooked up just to play College Hoops 2K8. A new College Hoops game from 2K would be an instant buy from me.

This was one of my favorites.

played this on xbox loved it. legacy mode was so fun.

I miss college sports games so much!

Bro this vid is crazy! Gonna try this one out on an emulator.