'HOOPS' LOSES POINTS ON GRAPHICS.

Byline: Redmond Carolipio Staff Writer

One look at the cover of ``College Hoops 2K6'' tells the whole story.

On the left is University of North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams, who lost his entire starting five to the siren song of the NBA. The ballplayer on the cover is Marvin Williams, the UNC player who jumped to the pros after his freshman year.

That's a lot of NBA mojo haunting a college hoops game, and it ends up casting a shadow over an otherwise solid experience.

Like the one-and-done kids who make the leap to the pros, ``College Hoops 2K6'' teases us with flashes of brilliance, but ultimately leaves us thinking about the looming specter of the NBA.

That's not too much of a shock, considering the game is made by 2K Sports, who assembled the awesome ``NBA 2K'' franchise. As fans can expect, ``College Hoops'' boasts sound controls and plenty of hoophead-satisfying features.

What's a little surprising is the lack of detail in the visual presentation. Camera shots of the crowd treat players to the sight of blockish-looking fans, and even the character models are a step down from what we're used to seeing in current-generation sports titles. It's certainly quite a drop from what we saw in ``NBA'' - even the cheerleaders started looking the same to me. Another staple of the college atmosphere is sound and color. But with the exception of the fight songs and mascots, you'd think every crowd in America had the same list of ``defense'' and ``shoot the two'' chants.

The play-by-play announcing can get a little repetitive as well. I can only hear Bill Raftery refer to the ``the kiss'' off the glass and ``man-to-man'' for so long.

However, the most irritating thing for me occurs whenever a player dunks in traffic. The game freezes for a split second in the middle of the dunk (to load something, I guess) before finishing the play. The mid-dunk freeze murders the rush you get from a well-executed fast break.

However, I played the PS2 version, so perhaps this doesn't happen in the other versions.

That quirk takes away from the otherwise tight game play mechanics, which cater to aspiring floor generals as opposed to the run-and-gunners who enjoy the frenetic pace of EA's ``Street'' and ``Live'' hoops titles. It's here where ``College Hoops'' starts earning its grades.

Players can direct every player on the court like a true point guard, and there's a litany of offensive and defensive sets (like the 2-3 matchup zone) at your disposal. During timeouts, the ``Coach's Clipboard'' feature allows you to tinker your lineup or emphasize things like defense or rebounding.

There are also a few in-game modes that can only be found in college hoops: Selection Sunday, Midnight Madness and the ability to run practice drills. You could kill an hour or two just working on your fast break.

COLLEGE HOOPS 2K6 - Two stars

Platform: PS2 and Xbox.

Rated: E for Everyone.

In a nutshell: Boasts sound controls and plenty of features for hoopheads, but lacks detail in its visual presentation.

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Photo:

no caption (video game: ``COLLEGE HOOPS 2K6'')