
Earlier today we got the a list of (some of) the classic teams in March Madness 08. Now IGN has posted up the top five rated players at each position in the game.
IGN also mentions the release date as December 11th. This coincides with the producer blog that mentioned that date as well. However everything else has stated December 18th. I will try and get confirmation one way or the other. (Update) Right now there appears to be no certainty around whether it will be the 11th or the 18th.
For many more player ratings including the top 20 at each position as well as all individual ratings categories and not just the overalls click here.
Point Guards
- Drew Neitzel, Senior, Michigan State 83
- Jamont Gordan, Junior, Mississippi State 83
- Mario Chalmers, Junior, Kansas 82
- Ramel Bradley, Senior, Kentucky 81
- D.J. Augustin, Sophomore, Texas 81
Shooting Guards
- O.J. Mayo, Freshman, USC, 83
- Derrick Low, Senior, Washington State, 83
- Stephen Curry, Sophomore, Davidson, 82
- Jessie Sapp, Junior, Georgetown, 82
- Antonio Anderson, Junior, Memphis, 82
Small Forwards
- Chris Douglas-Roberts, Junior, Memphis, 84
- Chase Budinger, Sophomore, Arizona, 83
- Brandon Rush, Junior, Kansas, 83
- Eric Gordon, Freshman, Indiana, 82
- Terrence Williams, Junior, Louisville, 81
Power Forwards
- Michael Beasley, Freshman, Kansas State, 83
- Patrick Patterson, Freshman, Kentucky, 82
- Robert Dozier, Junior, Memphis, 82
- Jon Brockman, Junior, Washington, 82
- Brook Lopez, Sophomore, Stanford, 81
Centers
- Tyler Hansbrough, Junior, North Carolina, 83
- Roy Hibbert, Senior, Georgetown, 82
- Joseph Jones, Senior, Texas A&M, 82
- Kevin Love, Freshman, UCLA, 82
- Josh Heytvelt, Junior, Gonzaga, 80
November 7, 2007 at 4:24 pm
no gerald henderson or kyle singler?
November 7, 2007 at 4:25 pm
CDR rated higher than anyone?!?! O_O … oh my
no Derrick Rose… that will prove incorrect as the season goes on
November 7, 2007 at 4:30 pm
One thing to consider with the college ratings is they are a lot more speculative than the NBA ones.
With the NBA, they can set up ratings and then adjust with updates throughout the season. Since they can’t do that with the college games they have to make guesses, and its a lot tougher doing it with these kids than with pros who have years of experience and results to go off of.
November 7, 2007 at 4:32 pm
while i agree pasta they could look at pre season all american teams and the top high school seniors from last year. By the way where the hell is chris lofton? hes pre season all america and not up there?
November 7, 2007 at 4:39 pm
Its tough to analyze MM ratings based on overalls, same as Live. Because they use so many ratings categories and then the overall is just the average. It doesn’t tell the full story.
CDR has the highest rating not cause he is the “best” player in the country, but because he is the most well rounded. I believe IGN mentioned he isn’t the highest rated in a single category. He just doesn’t lack in areas that others might.
November 7, 2007 at 5:01 pm
I bleed Memphis blue and I still don’t agree with the highness that they rated him even based on the reason they gave.. but then again I dont think you can go off of All Americans because they are voted in and might be great in some aspects but not simply amazing.
Eric Gordon, Michael Beasley, and Derrick Rose should be rated higher than Oj Mayo though :/ with those three hovering around 80-81
November 7, 2007 at 5:02 pm
and btw when I play my dynasty I will be selling my soul to get CDR and Derrick Rose to return for another year lol
November 7, 2007 at 7:43 pm
[quote comment="5809"]With the NBA, they can set up ratings and then adjust with updates throughout the season. Since they can’t do that with the college games they have to make guesses, and its a lot tougher doing it with these kids than with pros who have years of experience and results to go off of.[/quote]
Just curious Pasta. Why can’t they do roster updates for NCAA games? It’s not like they’re adding names, only changing some ratings. It would be more realistic if a sleeper team in preseason gets really good and is ranked high, then they’d be really good in the game instead of being a medicore team in the game based on their preseason ranking.
November 7, 2007 at 8:35 pm
Why does everyone suck?
November 7, 2007 at 9:26 pm
It would be great if u could import o.j mayo on the lakers thats the only thing that is missing ea make it happend.
November 8, 2007 at 6:33 am
I’m a Hoyas fan but there is no way in hell that Jessie Sapp should be rated that high
most of those SG’s are PGs and Eric Gordon isn’t a SF
November 8, 2007 at 7:17 am
Pasta-
Is there a reason why no one is rated a 90+ in this game? It’s just weird to see someone like a Hibbert be rated in the low 80’s, or even a Neitzel when they are pretty dominant at their respective positions. NCAA Football has several players rated in the 90+ range, so why not in March Madness?
November 8, 2007 at 7:19 am
[quote comment="5823"][quote comment="5809"]With the NBA, they can set up ratings and then adjust with updates throughout the season. Since they can’t do that with the college games they have to make guesses, and its a lot tougher doing it with these kids than with pros who have years of experience and results to go off of.[/quote]
Just curious Pasta. Why can’t they do roster updates for NCAA games? It’s not like they’re adding names, only changing some ratings. It would be more realistic if a sleeper team in preseason gets really good and is ranked high, then they’d be really good in the game instead of being a medicore team in the game based on their preseason ranking.[/quote]
I’ve also been wondering about this- is EA allowed to update player ratings, but also team ratings as a season progresses? NCAA Football suffers big time from not having teams like BC and Oregon as good as they are in real life- and it would be a great feature to see teams updated every month or so in both MM and NCAA.
November 8, 2007 at 7:41 am
[quote comment="5837"][quote comment="5823"][quote comment="5809"]With the NBA, they can set up ratings and then adjust with updates throughout the season. Since they can’t do that with the college games they have to make guesses, and its a lot tougher doing it with these kids than with pros who have years of experience and results to go off of.[/quote]
Just curious Pasta. Why can’t they do roster updates for NCAA games? It’s not like they’re adding names, only changing some ratings. It would be more realistic if a sleeper team in preseason gets really good and is ranked high, then they’d be really good in the game instead of being a medicore team in the game based on their preseason ranking.[/quote]
I’ve also been wondering about this- is EA allowed to update player ratings, but also team ratings as a season progresses? NCAA Football suffers big time from not having teams like BC and Oregon as good as they are in real life- and it would be a great feature to see teams updated every month or so in both MM and NCAA.[/quote]
Yeah its an interesting topic. Team ratings are just a representation of the combination of all player ratings. So it isn’t as easy as to make a team rating higher and then the team would be better, you’d have to make the players better.
Its a legal issue from what I understand. I’m actually somewhat surprised they can get away with what they do already in matching ratings and physical make-up to the real players. If they were to update ratings, it would be based on current events with the real players, and that would go beyond the line that has been drawn.
Its all a gray area for sure, but if they could do updates I’m sure they would. There is some kind of legality stopping it or the NCAA has informed them not to.
November 8, 2007 at 7:57 am
I hope that one day this NCAA rule will change
November 8, 2007 at 8:48 am
[quote comment="5839"]I hope that one day this NCAA rule will change[/quote]
Yeah I think it may eventually. There have been talks to get the names in, and that will probably happen some year down the line. Once that does I don’t see why updates couldn’t be allowed.
November 8, 2007 at 9:26 am
Yah it just doesn’t make sense why they are preventing it now, several years back I could understand but in today’s age with the ability to even edit the rosters anyway it just seems like a matter of time before they would give in…
Honestly with guys only staying in school a year or two and then hopping to the pros you really aren’t going to do anything to take away the stardom aspect by not showing names.
Very very strange rule, hopefully more intelligent heads will prevail
November 10, 2007 at 12:04 pm
Why can’t MM import the guys who want to go pro onto Live. its cool to follow there careers instead of just forgetting about them in the game. I think the real All-American Game is a great addition. please write back Pasta
November 10, 2007 at 5:11 pm
[quote comment="5918"]Why can’t MM import the guys who want to go pro onto Live. its cool to follow there careers instead of just forgetting about them in the game. I think the real All-American Game is a great addition. please write back Pasta[/quote]
EA’s explanation is that it is difficult to come up with a way that makes sense to do it since the game comes out months after Live. Logistically it is tough because of that. And the number of people who would wait to start a Live dynasty until well after MM is released is slim. The other option is to take MM into the following Live (so MM 08 would go into Live 09). But again logistically it is difficult in that scenario because Live would be coming out 9-10 months later and who would bother at that point?
They’re aware though that people want that, so I think they’ll figure something out within the next year or two.