College basketball is one of the most exciting spectacles in sport. The NCAA Championship is great theater, with all of the highs and lows of college competition displayed for us to see. Commiserating with the agony of student-athletes who fall short of their dream, and screaming in victory as our favourites cut down the netting and celebrate their triumphs. There's a reason why the Final Four Tournament receives outstanding ratings every year, and 989 Sports' NCAA Final Four 2002 is attempting to bring this experience to the PlayStation 2. Is it championship caliber, or a first-round elimination?

After a nice animated/live action intro video, NCAA Final Four 2002 provides several different game options. The usual suspects are present - exhibition, quick start, season, dynasty, career, tournament and arcade. Season mode is where most aficionados will head first, playing through an entire season to get to the Conference Championship and earn a berth in the NCAA Championship Tournament.

NCAA Final Four 2002 has some weird ideas about how basketball should be played. The computer's defenders employ the "amazing force field of doom" to prevent you from penetrating into the lane. Strong D in the paint is a good thing, not a bad thing, but a quick guard should be able to beat a mismatched defender off the dribble. Just to ensure that I wasn't being biased, I created a team full of short, quick players and put them up against another created team full of bigger, much slower defenders. Once I was in gameplay, beating the defender off the first hop was near impossible. Totally unrealistic. When playing defense, make a move to cover the ballhandler with the double team...then scream as no one else makes the coverage on the open man, allowing a wide open lane to the basket. Spin and post-up moves are hard to use, and frustrating to say the least.

Playcalling is spotty at best. No matter what happens, if you have a tall center you can pound the ball inside all day long and the AI will never make an adjustment to stop you. Once you figure out how to shut down the CPU on defense, the game is over for all intents and purposes. You can make adjustments to the difficulty levels, CPU shooting ability and shot meter, but that still won't cover for all of the AI deficiencies. If you're planning on making adjustments to your team's aggressiveness on rebounding, think again, the option isn't there.

Other failings? Legs and arms suffer from lack of detail compared to NBA Live 2002, the courts and uniforms are dull and washed out, and the cheerleaders look flat out scary. The commentary, featuring Eddie Doucette and Billy Packer, is weak. Neither offer any particular insight into the game at hand, and after experiencing the detailed commentary of EA Sports' NHL 2002, for example, NCAA Final Four 2002 comes up way short. The referee's running animation looks like he has something long and spiky shoved up his backside. Dunks are ANEMIC. No rim-rattling showboating here - the backboard and rim might be made of titanium for all the give they show here. The rosters aren't as accurate as they should be - the UNM Lobos don't have Casey Jacobson in their starting lineup, for example. The bigger programs don't seem to have this problem, it's a shame that the same detail wasn't applied to the smaller schools as well. Everyone deserves a fair shake!

You can't edit player names, which is an absolute killer.

There are some good aspects to NCAA Final Four 2002. Rebounding actually works, unlike some other games on the market. Player faces are reasonably detailed. A "Bubble Watch" feature is included, which kicks in when a team has just enough wins to get into the NCAA Tournament, but not enough to make the berth automatic. The selection committee will determine which team deserves an appearance - nice touch. There are school-specific cheers which do add to the college atmosphere, and the music used during the cheerleader breaks is pretty good. Dynasty mode allows you to recruit at 3 different levels: graduate assistant, assistant coach, and head coach. These determine how many visits you can make on potential recruits. Want to work your way up the coaching ladder? Choose career mode, where you start as a graduate assistant at a small school and try to battle your way up to the head coaching position at a major college basketball program. 989's "Touch Shooting" is very cool, allowing you to truly control your shots. 300+ of the Division 1-A schools are present and accounted for, thanks to the wonders of DVD storage.

In comparison to last year's NCAA Final Four, 2002 is an improvement, as it should be. Unfortunately, the improvement is extremely slight. As far as truly providing the sights, sounds and (most importantly) the feel of college basketball, this game just doesn't get it done. Brick!