650 Team/65 Conference FBCB 2010 Simulation
 

In my last version of Fast Break Basketball I did quite a bit of editing within the universe. However I could never create my dream college basketball universe because you were locked in how many teams and conferences you could have. Well needless to say I was happy to see that Fast Break Basketball 2010 allowed more customization in regards to teams and conferences. So naturally I went a bit crazy.

The universe I created contains 650 teams, placed in 65 conferences. Gone are the Big Ten, Big East, etc. Teams are now placed in conferences based on what region of the country they are located in. For example all teams in the state of Oregon play in the same conference, regardless of team prestige. The Oregon Ducks match up with the Portland Pilots in conference play.

Winning the conference is a huge deal, and not just for regional bragging rights. With 65 conferences, and 65 places in the NCAA Tournament, this creates a situation in which a team must win it's conference tournament to participate in the NCAA Tournament. The conference tournaments invite the top 8 teams in the conference, with the 1st and 2nd seeded teams getting a two round bye. I did this because the conference tournament is of great importance and I wanted the strongest teams during the regular season to have the best chance of getting into the NCAA Tournament.

There are only 347 teams that play NCAA D1 basketball so I had to obviously add a few teams to reach 650. The teams added are a mix of D2, D3, NAIA, and JUCO teams. I didn't have a set formula for adding teams. I added some of the most successful teams within their classification, I added teams that I thought had cool nicknames and/or logos, and I added teams because I felt their location provided some geographical diversity.

Lastly I started from scratch when assigning prestige levels. I assigned prestige mostly on the teams total history, although some recent history played into it as well. For example Indiana has struggled recently but they still were given a 100 prestige level.

All conferences were given a 3 for prestige, and this won't change. I imagine this will bring teams with 0 prestige up, and teams with 90+ prestige down a bit, but I don't want one conference to start dominating with 5+ teams in the Top 25, while only sending one to the NCAA Tournament. Also if I give one conference a 5, and another conference a 1 it will basically cripple a strong team in the 1 rated conference, and give to much strength to a weak team in a 5 rated conference.

Admission requirements were also tweaked a bit for some schools. Obviously the Ivy League schools will have the Ivy League type admission requirements, schools like Cal Tech, Swartmore, etc. will also have these admission standards. Schools like Duke, Northwestern, etc. will also have tougher admission standards than just the default.

Now to go over some of the league options. I have turned off the 3rd and 4th tournament's. No particular reason except that I don't like them. Transfers are allowed, and the players must take a red shirt year. However everybody in this league is going to be playing 4 seasons, no one is leaving early for the NBA. Just because I don't like it when players leave after only one season in real life, and if I can control it in my league's universe than it won't be happening there either. Injuries and suspensions were set to normal.

I will review each season in one message. The first season will begin in the year 2010. Below is a listing of all teams, and conferences.

Teams Part 1

Yowzers. Actually, I wonder if the game produces enough recruits for this setup? Off the top of my head there are, I think, 2,500-odd recruits each season, so I'm guessing it should be fine, but this could be an interesting test. I doubt HR had this in mind when he offered customization! :)

Wow. Will be very interested to see the results.

Awesome setup, but no UW-La Crosse? :(

I find it interesting that you chose to break up the UNLV/Nevada rivalry

I broke up a lot rivals. Most notably North Carolina and Duke. I now had the two private schools Duke and Wake Forest, and two public schools North Carolina and NC State as rivals. I couldn't put Duke and North Carolina in the same conference together, there both just to good. It's a little bit of a downside, but I wanted there to be at least a little bit of competitive balance, and not have one super conference.

Maybe UW-La Crosse will make it if I plan to expand. :D

The 2010 regular season and conference tournaments are completed.

Some big time accomplishments during the year were LSU’s 133 points scored against Northwestern State (LA). On the other hand the Louisville Cardinals put together a monstrous defensive performance in limiting Morehead State to only 21 points for an entire game.

There weren’t too many major conference tournament upsets. But certainly a few upsets. Muhlenburg (PA) the smallest school to ever reach the Sweet Sixteen will be going to the NCAA Tournament beating out Penn State for the conference tournament championship. VMI (VA) will be going to the NCAA Tournament as well beating out Virginia. Furman (SC) will be dancing as well. After beating USC Upstate (SC), Upstate had a huge run in the conference tournament making it to the finals as the 8th and final seed. They beat out Clemson to get to the title game. Farleigh Dickinson (NJ) will be going to the Tournament after beating #1 seed Rutgers, and outlasting Seton Hall in the championship. Alabama State, Central State (IA) will also be going to the Tournament.

Some notables missing the Tournament are Duke, Indiana, and Connecticut. Duke was beat by Davidson in the 3rd round of the conference tournament, Indiana was beaten by Purdue in the championship, and Connecticut lost in the 3rd round of the conference tournament to Holy Cross (MA).

On to the tournament.

Here is the Top 25 before the tournament. The highest rated team to not make the tournament is Kansas State. They lost to Kansas in the finals of the conference tournament. Marquette had a fairly easy schedule, with Wisconsin being their toughest opponent all season. They beat them three times, twice during the season, and in the conference tournament finals.

Go Bearcats! (of NW Missouri State, not the other 50 Bearcats)

It was certainly an NCAA Tournament to remember.
The four #1 seeds were:
Marquette
Kentucky
Villanova
Cincinnati
Only two of them would make it to the Sweet Sixteen, while only one would make it to the Elite Eight and into the Final Four.

The biggest storyline coming out of this year’s NCAA Tournament would be the great upset that the Central (IA) Dutch pulled off in the first round. For the first time ever a 16 seed beat a number 1 seed when Central (IA) beat Kentucky 82-73. The greatest upset I have ever seen playing text sim sports. Central (IA) was 15-18 during the regular season and had a prestige of 0. They started the season 1-10, which included a 49 point beating by the Wisconsin Badgers. Kentucky was 30-2, and had beaten NC State, Michigan State, and Georgia Tech, while also beating Louisville three times. There two losses were to two top 25 teams Florida and Xavier (OH). Kentucky’s prestige level was at 100.
Kentucky led through most of the game, but never by more than 10 points. With 5 minutes left Central (IA) took the lead and never let it go. They hit a couple of clutch 3’s and the rest was history. Resounding 9 point win against the 2nd ranked team in the entire country.

Central’s magic would end in the second half against Old Dominion in the 2nd round. It look as if a second upset was in the works when Central was leading at half, but ODU was to much in the end, and the Cinderella story was over.

Cincinnati would lose to Michigan in the sweet sixteen. Michigan would go onto beat UCLA to get into the final four as a 5th seed. In Kentucky’s bracket the 2nd seeded Syracuse Orange made it to the Final Four. Syracuse beat out Florida (3 seed), and LSU (4 seed) to make it to the Final Four. Marquette had a smooth run to the Final Four, crushing Kansas and Gonzaga in the sweet sixteen and the elite eight respectively. After Central (IA) lost in the 2nd round the big story became the 9th seeded North Carolina Tar Heels. North Carolina beat #1 seeded Villanova in the 2nd round, #4 seed Michigan State in the sweet sixteen, and #2 Maryland to get into the Final Four. Nobody could be surprised to see North Carolina in the Final Four, but they could be surprised that they made it as a 9 seed.

In the Final Four Syracuse beat Michigan rather easily, while North Carolina gave Marquette their only loss of the season, beating the Golden Eagles 103-98. In the championship game North Carolina grabbed their 6th National Title beating Syracuse 96-88.

The NIT was won by the 1 seeded Mississippi State Bulldogs who beat out 1 seeded Xavier (OH).

The player of the year was a Texas Longhorn. Senior PG Don Hardcastle’s stat line:
16.1 PPG, 5 RPG, 8.6 APG, 1.7 SPG.
Hardcastle is projected to be the #1 draft pick in the NBA draft.

Start of the 2011 season.

The top pick in the NBA draft wasn’t Hardcastle (2nd pick), but was a PF from Cincinnati named George Mackey.

The top recruiting class belonged to Maryland, followed by UCLA, Cincinnati, Connecticut and Oklahoma State. Oklahoma State signed three 5 star recruits. UCLA signed the top recruit a C named Daniel Chaney. He’s looks like an excellent blocker, and has a great inside game.

Mississippi State’s head coach Ezra Stadler parlayed his teams NIT championship with a head coaching job at legendary school Indiana.

Lets go Brandeis!!!!:popcorn: :D

No major records have broken this regular season, and only Virginia enters the tournament undefeated.

There were a few conference tournament surprises. George Mason won their conference tournament, which means Maryland a Final Four team the past season will be going to the NIT. Virginia Wesleyan beat out Virginia by two points to win their conference tournament. Duke will miss the tournament for the second time in a row as will Indiana. Kansas will also be missing from this season’s tournament losing to Wichita State in the final. Last years champion North Carolina won their conference tournament but it was close, they just beat out UNC Wilmington 82-80. Brandeis made it to the conference championship game but lost big to Boston College. Mississippi State last year’s NIT winner will be going to the big dance this season. UConn returns to the dance this year as well after a one year absence. Marquette the #1 team through most of the last season will miss the tournament this year losing to Wisconsin in the final. Marquette is also the highest ranked team to miss the tournament this season, being ranked 6th in the nations poll. West Virginia ranked 11th will miss the tournament after being upset by Wheeling Jesuit in the third round. The two big surprises going to the tournament will be Bemidji State (MN) seeded 7th in their conference tournament, and Redlands (CA) seeded 8th in their conference tournament.

This is going to be a lot of fun! It's a shame my alma mater--Division III Emory University, in Atlanta--didn't make it into your field but, even with 650 schools, a lot of teams have to be left out, and I don't recognize many D-III programs on your list.

At any rate, I'll be following along, and I'll almost certainly check out the FBCB demo, too. :)

The NCAA Tournament wasn’t as crazy as last season's but the Final Four was one to remember with some great games, and some great moments.
The four number 1 seeds going into the Tournament were:

Texas
Michigan State
Louisiana State
Connecticut

Like last year only one of the number one seeds would make it to the Final Four. First Louisiana State went down to 8th seeded Clemson in the second round. LSU also struggled in the first half against 16th seeded Redlands (CA). Michigan once again beat a number one seed in the sweet sixteen round beating Texas. Michigan was a 5th seed again this season, and met Cincinnati in the elite eight again. This time Cincinnati revenged last year’s loss beating Michigan 83-72. Connecticut would lose to Kentucky (2nd seeded) in the elite eight. Kentucky avenged last year’s upset in the first round of the tournament, by making it all the way to the championship game. Kentucky beat one seeded Michigan State, and than faced 3 seeded Gonzaga in the national title game.

Gonzaga made it to the title game by beating 2 seeded Cincinnati in the final round 83-80. Cincinnati had a nice lead throughout the entire game until about 5 minutes left when Gonzaga made a run. The Bearcats had a one point lead with about 30 seconds left and the ball. Gonzaga stole the ball and made the easy layup. Cincinnati still had a chance however down by only one. Gonzaga stole the ball again, and made the easy layup. Cincinnati last desperation 3 pointer missed and Gonzaga won. In the championship game the tables were almost reversed on Gonzaga. Gonzaga had a nice lead against Kentucky through most of the game, but with five minutes left Kentucky made a run. Kentucky even took the lead with 58 seconds left. However Kentucky fouled Gonzaga giving the Bulldogs a three point play. Kentucky was now down 88-89. Kentucky missed the three point attempt, and was forced to foul Gonzaga on the next play. Gonzaga missed both free throws, and Kentucky was given one more chance. Kentucky was able to drive the ball inside, but Gonzaga blocked the shot with no time left to win their first national title.

Georgia Tech was the Cinderella story of this year’s tournament making it to the sweet sixteen as a 13 seed. They beat Pittsburgh and George Mason until they lost to Clemson. Virginia’s undefeated season was finished in the 2nd round vs. Michigan.

Louis Houck a senior PG for Michigan State won player of the year honors. He averaged 16 points, 4 rebounds, 8 assists, and 3 steals per game. He’s not expected to be drafted by an NBA team being rated as the 16th best pro prospect point guard. Robert Cooper was a Jr. C at Virginia State finished the season with an average of 5 blocks per game, above and beyond anyone else.

1 seeded Marquette won the NIT beating out 5 seeded North Carolina State in the championship.

Start of the 2012 season.

The Washington Huskies had two players selected in the top five of the NBA draft. C Alonso Gribble from the 1st pick, and PG David Peeler was the 3rd pick. Washington made it to the sweet sixteen the past season.

Michigan State pulled in the top recruiting class, followed by North Carolina, Florida, Texas, and surprise UNLV. The top recruit Christian Halford was ruled academic ineligible and didn’t sign with anyone. Thus UCLA with their signing of Joseph Rowe a PF grabbed the top player two years in a row.

No major coaching moves. Only notable move was Purdue hiring Jack Wilburn after a successful season at Montana.

The 2012 regular season is over with.

Werner Kiefer of Colorado is now the new single-game point’s record holder scoring 54. West Alabama’s Dennis Galbraith holds the record for most blocks in a game now with 14.

Once again there were some conference tournament upsets. George Mason will be going to the tournament again this season. They beat out Georgetown in the championship game. They beat Maryland on their way to Georgetown. It’s the third year Georgetown will be out of the tournament. Duke will also be out of the tournament for a third year in a row. Once again Davidson beat them in the semi-finals. Michigan State ranked #2 in the polls will miss the tournament. They lost to 3 seeded Cornerstone (MI) in the championship. Indiana finally got over the hump by beating Purdue in the conference final. For the last two seasons they had lost to Purdue in the finals. Last year’s NIT champion Marquette will get a chance to repeat in the NIT after they lost to Wisconsin in the finals. In a low scoring game 5th seeded Hastings (NE) beat 2nd seeded Creighton 43-30 to go to the dance. Kansas will miss the tournament for the second year in a row after losing to Air Force in the semi-final round of their conference tournament. Lastly the biggest surprise to make it to the tournament is Cal Tech. As an 8th and final seed in their conference tournament they ran the gauntlet and beat 2nd seeded UC Riverside in the finals. Cal Tech is highly prestigious college, but known for having a losing basketball team. In 2007 they broke a 207 game D3 losing streak. They still have a conference losing streak that spans 24 seasons.

Some highly ranked teams will miss the tournament this year. Michigan State, and Florida State most notable.

This was the first time during this simulation that there were no undefeated teams during the regular season.

How long did it take to set that up?

And do you have a universe or league file you are able (and willing) to share?

The four number one seeds were:
Syracuse
Wisconsin
Kentucky
Connecticut
Last year’s champion Gonzaga was given a 4 seed.

There weren’t too many upsets in this years tournament. Two one seeds, Syracuse and Wisconsin made it to the Final Four. The last two spots went to North Carolina and West Virginia. Both teams were 2 seeds.

Georgia Tech once again was the Cinderella of the tournament. As a 13th seed they made it to the sweet sixteen. Maybe it’s time the committee started seeding them higher. The big upset was 1 seeded Kentucky losing to 8 seeded Florida in the 2nd round. Florida would make it to the elite eight before losing to North Carolina. West Virginia made it to the Final Four by beating Connecticut in the elite eight. 1 seeded Connecticut was coming off of a 50+ point plus beat down of Pittsburgh. Syracuse beat UCLA and Stanford to get into the Final Four. Lastly Wisconsin made it to the final four after beating Cincinnati in the elite eight 70-48. It was the Badgers best performance of the tournament. The Badgers looked sketchy in the first two rounds. They played a close one until late in the game with Cornerstone (MI) and only won by two against Boston College in the second round. Last year’s champion Gonzaga lost to UCLA in the second round 80-82.

The best game of the Final Four was Syracuse and North Carolina. With the game tied at 71 and 13 seconds left Syracuse fouled North Carolina. North Carolina was to shoot a one and one. They missed the first free throw; Syracuse grabbed a quick rebound, drove the length of the court, and made an inside shot to win the game with no time left. Syracuse would face West Virginia in the title game, after the Mountaineers beat Wisconsin. It was another close game for Syracuse although they didn’t need a buzzer beater to win it in the end. Syracuse best West Virginia 70-66 to win their 2nd tournament title in school history.

Jr. PG Rex Saunders of Kentucky won the player of the year award. He had averaged 20 points, 4 rebounds, 9 assists, and 2 steals per game. Since he is a Jr. he will be back next year to defend the award.

Maryland won the NIT beating Michigan State in the championship.

Above will be the last update until Friday night hopefully, or maybe Saturday. I think the simulation has gone well so far. There have been some awesome games to witness in the Final Four, and I'm still having a hard time believing Central (IA) upset of Kentucky during the tournament in the first season.

To answer some questions.

It took probably 4-5 hours to put it all together. I had a structure in mind which helped, and there are a lot of resources on the web for college sports team information. I thought the hardest part would be the geographic coordinates, but that was probably the easiest. I found a .csv file with a list of all the cities and their coordinates in the United States. Edited it to work with the formula I was going to create, and then I just let vlookup in Excel do all the work.

I have attached the teams and conference .csv files in this message. You will have to implement your own logos. I did so in my game, but having taking a few copyright law classes I didn't feel like providing a large number of trademarks in one zip file over the Internet. Most of the team logos can easily be found doing a Google image search. Lastly in your tourny.csv your going to have to change the school ID to match Hawaii's new ID in my file. Otherwise the host of the Hawaiian pre-season tournament could end up being UA Anchorage.

Also keep in mind team prestige acts a little bit funny because of the setup. A team with 0 prestige will automatically get a few bumps each season to match that of conference prestige. Likewise a team with 100 prestige will get a few bumps down if they don't win the national title.

Did you ever entertain the thought of setting up an international conference?

I thought about it. But I'm not exactly sure how the geography would work out. I think the game can only handle teams in the United States, as there are no set coordinates for the locations of foreign players.

Start of the 2013 season.

Justin Douglas a SG out of Tennessee was the first pick in the NBA draft.

UCLA pulled in the top recruiting class followed by Cincinnati, Wisconsin, Villanova, and Arkansas. UCLA also signed the number one player for three seasons in row. This year the top player was SF David Collins. Expectations must be running high for UCLA with three top 1 recruits now on the team.

No major coaching moves the past off-season.

A major record was broken during the regular season. Baylor set the team scoring record scoring 141 points against Texas Christian.

There were also a lot of surprises in the conference tournaments. Defending national champion Syracuse won’t be going to the tournament this year after losing to Niagara in the conference title game. Georgetown will miss the tournament for the fourth year in a row. Kansas will miss it for the third year in a row. North Carolina will also miss the tournament for the first time during the simulation after losing to North Carolina State in the title game. The year UNC misses the tournament would of course be the year Duke would finally make it. Duke didn’t have to play Davidson this year in the conference tournament, and beat Wake Forest in the title game. The biggest surprise was Southern Vermont an 8 seed in their conference tournament will be going to the big dance. Northwestern (IL) will be going to it's schools first ever tournament. The only school from a major conference that has yet to make the tournament in real life.

Everybody in the top ten will make it to the tournament. No undefeated teams in the tournament for the second season in a row.

The four #1 seeds for the tournament were:
Arizona
Cincinnati
Arkansas
Indiana
For the first time during this simulation all #1 seeds would make it to the sweet sixteen.
15th seeded Northwestern (IL) was the big surprise of the tournament. They beat Oklahoma in the first round, and beat 7th seeded Iowa in the second round to make it to the sweet sixteen. The other tournament surprise was 14th seeded St. John’s. The Red Storm made it all the way to the elite eight. They beat Kansas State, Temple, and Pittsburgh before losing to 4th seeded Connecticut. The west region featured an old Pac-10 matchup in the elite eight with 1st seeded Arizona beating 2nd seeded UCLA to make it to the final four. The south region also featured an old SEC matchup with 1st seeded Arkansas beating 2nd seeded Kentucky in the Elite Eight. The midwest regional final was the battle of Ohio. 3rd seeded Ohio State beat 1st seeded Cincinnati to make it to the final four. Arkansas cruised past Arizona, as did Ohio State against Connecticut to make it to the championship game. The championship game was a close battle until the end, but Ohio State eventually outlasted Arkansas 88-81 to win their schools second national title, and first since 1960.

Trinidad Sparks a SR PG on Arkansas won the player of the year award. He averaged 18 points, 6 rebounds, 10 assists, and 2 steals per game. An Arkansas player also won freshman player of the year. SF Milton Roberts averaged 17 points a game. No wonder Arkansas had such a great season.

Kansas may have missed the tournament for the third straight time, but they come away winning the NIT. As the #1 seed they beat the 4th seeded Florida State Seminoles 77-65.