NCAA MArch Madness 2004 Faq --XBOX-- Copyright 2003 Electronic Arts Written By: Das (George Reeves) Email: Dascomander@aol.com January 23 2004 Version 0.75 Version History 0.75 Jan 23, 2004 Wrote the guide and submitted it for the first time, I'll clean it up a bit and add more at a later date 0.76 Jan 26, 2004-Apr 5, 2004 Added Rivalries, did some cleaning. Forgot to submit though. Sorry 0.77 Apr 7, 2004 Updated the legal section. 0.78 Apr 12,2004 Maui Invitational Answer??? Contents 1. Controls 2. Game modes 3. Campus Challenge 4. Buying STuff 5. Mysteries of the RPI Rating and selection explianed/ Maui Invitational 6. Dynasty Mode **Coming Soon** 7. Legal garbage Section 1---Controls Offense------------------------------------------------------------------------ Left thumbstick- Moves selected Man D pad- Selects preset Plays Right Thumbstick- Click down for the off ball switch, which allows you to control a player who does not have the ball. Tapping a direction is the Freestyle Control. I'll get to this beast in a moment A Button- Passes the ball. Tap it for a lob, Hold it for a faster pass B button- Shoots the ball for a jump shot. Release it at the top of your jump to shoot X button- Lay up or a dunk. press it again during a lay up to adjust your shot to try and avoid the defender's block. NOTE- Adjusted shots are harder to hit because they are usually taken with your players "off" hand. Y button- The pro hop. Use this to set yourself up for the freestyle controls White Buton- Goes for the Alley-Oop. Black Button- Direct Pass. Press Black then the corresponding button that appears over the head of the player you wish to pass to. Start Button- Pauses game Back Button- Calls Timeout Left trigger- Backdown/Ball Protect. High strength players can push their way towards the basket. Right trigger- Turbo. Gotta love the Turbo. Defense------------------------------------------------------------------------ Left thumbstick- Moves selected Man D pad- Selects preset Plays Right Thumbstick- Freestyle Control. A button- Switches Player you control B button- "Take the Charge" stance X button- Attemps Steal Y Button- Jump/ Block Black Button- Direct switch White Button- Switches to the last man back Start Button- Pauses game Back Button- Intentional foul Left trigger- N/A Right trigger- Turbo The Freestyle Control---------------------------------------------------------- To do the Freestyle Moves you tap a direction with the right Thumbstick Offense without hitting the Pro Hop (Running) Up- Spin Move Left or Right- Juke move or Crossover. Depends what hand ball is in. For example, if a player is dribbling with his right hand, and you press right he will do the juke move. If yuo had pressed left, he would do a crossover. Down- Does a crossover no matter which hand the ball is in. Offense without hitting the Pro Hop (Standing) Up- Crossover with a foreward step Left or right- Dribbles behind Back Down- Crossover with a backward step Offense after hitting the pro hop Up- Hold ball above head Left or Right- Holds ball off to the side Down- Holds ball close to the ground Defense All defensive moves are the same regardless of running or standing.(It does change the animation a little though.) Up- Holds hands above head for a challenge Left- Steal attemp with left hand Right- Steal attempt with right hand Down- Gets into defensive stance Section 2---Game Modes Play Now- Basic game with no season attached Season- Play one season with a college Dynasty Mode- Play through 5 to 30 seasons with a coach. Get hired, Get fired, leave a team for greener pastures, its all up to you. Mascot Game- Weird little mode where you pick a team and the players are dressed up a a schools mascot. The players stats are unneffected by the strange dress. Heres a list of schools available in this mode-- Alabama Arizona Arizona State Arkansas Auburn Ball State Boston College California Cincinnatti Clemson Connecticut Duke Florida Georgetown Georgia Georgia Tech Iowa Iowa State Kansas Kentucky LSU Louisville Maryland Memphis Miami Michigan State Minnesota Mississippi State Missouri NC State New Mexico North Carolina Northwestern Notre Dame Ohio Ohio State Oklahoma State Ole Miss Oregon Oregon State Pittsburgh Purdue Southern Miss Stanford (Believe me. You HAVE to see this one) Syracuse Tennessee Texas UCLA UNLV Virginia Wake Forest Washington Washingtom State Wisconsin Rivalry Game- Play in a single game with Arch rivals There are 37 rivalry games to choose from. Availible rivalries are Alabama-Auburn Appalachian State-Davidson Arizona-Arizona State Ball State-Bowling Green Brigham Young-Utah California-Stanford Clemson-South Carolina Colorado State-Wyoming Dayton-Saint Louis DePaul-Marquette Duke-North Carolina East Tennesee State-Tennessee Chatanooga Fresno Stste-UNLV Georgetown-Syracuse Georgia-Georgia Tech Georgia South-Wofford Harvard-Yale Illinois-Northwestern Indiana-Purdue Kansas-Missouri Kentucky-Louisville Massachusetts-Rhode Island Michigan-Michigan State Mississippi State-Ole Miss Montana-Montana State NC State-Wake Forest Ohio-Ohio State Oregon-Oregon State Pennsylvania-Princeton Saint Joseph's-Temple San Francisco-Santa Clara The Citadel-VMI UCLA-USC Virginia-Virginia Tech Washington-Washington State Tournaments- You can set up your own NCAA Tournament or Maui Invitational. The NCAA tournament is the "Big Dance". 64 teams in a single elimination tournament. The Maui Invitational is Is an 8 team double elimination tournament that usually takes place at the beginning of the season. Practice- What Can I say? Really? Basically a game with no defenders. Section 3---The Campus Challenge The Campus Challenge is a Series of mini challenges that earn points in the Dynasty mode to buy stat boosts and mid season training camps. Chalenges are divided up between One player, two player, and team tasks. Also there are Half, whole Game and Season challenges. One Player Tasks ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Single Half ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GEt 3 3PT's in a half 5 pts Get 6 rebounds 10 pts Get 3 offensive rebounds 10 pts Get 6 defensive rebounds 10 pts Get 5 assists 10 pts Get 10 points 10 pts Get 3 blocks 10 pts Get 3 steals 10 pts ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Whole Game ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Get 20 points 20 pts get 12 rebounds 25 pts get 6 offensive rebounds 25 pts get 6 defensive rebounds 25 pts get 10 assists 25 pts make 6 blocks 25 pts make 6 steals 25 pts Achieve a double-double 30 pts make 6 3PT's 30 pts score 30 points 40 pts score 40 points 75 pts Score 50 points 100 pts Achieve a triple double 100 pts Achieve a quadruple double 150 pts ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Season ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Make Conference Def. team 90 pts Make Conference 1st team 100 pts Average 4 Steals for season 100 pts Freshman Makes All conference tean (1st or 2nd) 110 pts Player makes All Def. Team 110 pts Freshman makes all Freshman team 125 pts Make all NCAA 2nd team 125 pts Make all NCAA 1st team 175 pts average 10 points 200 pts average 12 rebounds 200 pts average 10 assists 200 pts average 4 blocks 200 pts Win Freshman of the Year 300 pts Win Player of the Year 300 pts Average A double-double 350 pts Lead NCAA in scoring 350 pts Lead NCaa in assists 350 pts Lead NCAA in rebounds 350 pts Lead NCAA in blocks 350 pts Player wins Def. Player of the year 400 pts Freshman Leads NCAA in scoring 450 pts Freshman Leads NCaa in assists 450 pts Freshman Leads NCAA in rebounds 450 pts Freshman Leads NCAA in blocks 450 pts Finish season with 30 points per game 450 pts Freshman leads NCAA in steals 500 pts NCAA Player of the year for 2 seasons in a row 750 pts Team Challenges ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Half Period ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 Offensive rebounds 10 pts 5 defensive rebounds 10 pts 6 assists 10 pts 35 points in a half 10 pts 4 blocks 15 pts 4 steals 15 pts 100% shooting 40 pts 5 3PT's 60 pts 10 rebounds (offensive and defensive combined) 75 pts ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Whole Game ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8 Defensive rebounds 20 pts 13 Assists 20 pts 70 points 20 pts 8 Blocks 20 pts 8 Steals 20 pts Make 6 3PT's 20 pts Above 40% shooting Percentage 20 pts Win by 10 points 25 pts 100% free throw shooting 25 pts 10 offensive rebounds 25 pts 18 rebounds 30 pts Win by 20 points 30 pts End game with less than 5 turnovers 50 pts Score 100 points in a game 75 pts Shoot above 50% 75 pts Win by 30 75 pts Shoot above 70% 100 pts Win by 40 100 pts Defeat a top 25 team 100 pts Starters all score in double digits 110 pts Shoot above 80% 125 pts Win by 50 150 pts Shoot 100% 150 pts Defat the #1 team in the nation 400 pts ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Season ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5 game win streak 100 pts 10 game win streak 200 pts team averages 18 rebounds 275 pts Team averages 15 assists 275 pts Team averages 8 blocks 300 pts Team averages 8 steals 300 pts Make NCAA Tournament 300 pts 15 game win streak 300 pts Sign An All American 300 pts Best record in conference 350 pts Average 75 points per game 375 pts Win Coach of the Year 425 pts Win The Maui Invitational 500 pts Win Conference Tournament 600 pts Win NCAA Championship 1000 pts Finish Season ranked #1 in power poll 1500 pts Undefeated Season AND NCAA championship 1750 pts Two Player Tasks ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Season ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 players make All NCAA 1st team 500 pts 2 Players make All NCAA Def. Team 500 pts 2 Freshman make All Freshman Team 850 pts Section 4---Stuff to buy with the Campus Challlenge points During the dynasty mode there are two different types of extras to spend the campus challenge points that you have ammassed. There are Training Sessions, which are like the training camp that is run at the beginning of the season, and there are team Extras. The extras are skills coaches that you hire for a set amount of time and are a 5 point stat boost for as long as your skills "coach" works for you. Each coach raises only one stat, and he leaves you at the end of the season, regardless of how much time you have left on his contract, so don't hire a full season coach with only 2 games left, hire a 5 day coach, instead. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Training Sessions ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Single Player 1500 pts Team Training Session 4000 pts ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Team Extras ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Single Game 1000 pts 5 games 4500 pts 10 games 8000 pts Single Season 20000 pts ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Coach's "Name" What Stat They Raise Rebounding Coach Rebounding Shooting Coach Field Goal Rating Big Man Coach* Center's Inside Scoring 3 Point Shooting Coach* Guard's 3 point Shooting Dribbling Coach Dribbling Rating Timing Coach* Foreward's Block Rating Passing Coach Passing Rating Free Throw Coach Free throw rating Conditioning Coach Endurance Rating Motivational Speaker* Non Starter Field Goal and Defense Workout Facility Strength Plyometrics Coach Dunk Rating Defensive Coach Steal Rating AN asterisk means that that coach does not work for the entire team. He only gives a stat boost to the positions listed. Section 5---Making the NCAA Tournament in the Dynasty or Season Mode There are 64 spots in the NCAA Tournament. 31 of these slots are reserved for winners of the Conference tourneys. Winning your conference is the "surest" way to reach the tournament. In theory a team can have no wins during the regular season and string together 5 or 6 wins in the conference tourney and make the NCAA tournament. When it comes time for the Conference tourneys pile up the wins and you will make it. And if you don't: The Selection Committee Unlike the real NCAA, this game does not have a selection committee so it picks based on a mathematical formula. This is your RPI or relatvive power index. This comes into play if you don't win the conference tournament. While the tourney route is the surest, this is actually a bit easier, if you win a lot in the regular season, but requires a bit of preseason setup. When it is time to make your non-conference schedule, try to get as many ranked teams to play yourr team as possible. This should give you a reasonably high preseason RPI. Win as many games as you possibly can. Your RPI may go down a bit over time because the relative strength of your opponents may change in strength over the course of the season. Essentialy what you are hoping for is for your opponents to lose to you, but to win against everyone else they play against, so their RPI will not go down as much. On a side note totally destroying teams constantly is not always such a great idea especially if you are going for a number 1 ranking in the power polls. The CPU will read this as a "weak" schedule and your RPI will suffer a bit, since a team that you beat by 30 plus points is going to slide down the rankings by quite a few spots, moving teams that you are not scheduled to play up the rankings. You will still make the NCAA tournament, but you might not get the no. 1 seed. If you want to check on you's status as the computer reads it at the moment go to the Sporting News choice on the main screen. After a certain number of weeks the Tournament watch option will become availible. Once inside there are three screens; On the Bubble, Best of the Rest and Automatic Bids. Automatic Bids are the teams that have a high enough RPI to make it regardless of how they do in the conference tournament. Best of the rest is the next best list. Most of these teams are going to go to the Big Dance as long as there are no major breakdowns on their part. Bubble teams are on the fence. A few of them will qualify for the tourney, but most of them won't. At best mayby 5 of them get to go if they don't win the conference tourneys. If you are here you got a bit of work to do. If you are not on any of these lists you HAVE to win the conference tourney. Or turn down the difficulty and try again next season. The Maui Invitational For the life of me I can't get invited to the stupid thing. Someone else has, so for now here's IQB833 and his thoughts on the Maui Invitational: IQB833 Says "I read your faq on NCAA MM 2004, its really useful especially about the Team Extras stuff. about the Maui Invitational, i think that you have to be in the preseason top 25, or maybe even 15, to get an invite. I was Illinois (preseason #14) once and got an invite. i've also been Cincinnati (preseason #13 i think) and got an invite. However, i am currently Texas (preseason #12), but didnt get an invite, so i think you have to be in the preseason top 15 to even have a chance to get in the Maui. hope this helps" If anyone else has a clue on what the deal is with Maui let me know. Section 6-Dynasty Mode **Coming Soon** Section 7--- Legal stuff Copyright 2004 George Reeves Jr (AKA-Das, Dascomander) This copyright is protected by international law. Any use of this FAQ, or any part of this FAQ without the Authors permission is forbidden, by anyone, and I mean it. If I give permission my Faq may only be used as is with no revisions or changes to it in any way. I will check these things. If you really want to use it my Email is at the top of the FAQ. Contact me and ask. Gamefaqs (www.gamefaqs.com) DOES have permission to use my FAQ.Cheatcodecentral (www.cheatcc.com) also has permission to us my Faq. NCAA MArch Madness 2004 Copyright 2003 Electronic Arts NCAA March Madness and most everything else in the game is a trademark of the NCAA or the respective schools in the game. Except The Sporting News. I'm not sure who holds the trademark or copyright to that, but it's theirs. Thanks to Gamefaqs for being a terriffic site thats come in useful many times over the years. If anyone has any idea on how to get invited to the Maui Invitational in the game please contact me. I've never been able to trigger an invite. Let me know and Ill credit you ( and we all want to get our name in a FAQ right?)