The preseason favorites were the UNI Panthers coached by Bruce Gramowski. Also favored were the
Kentucky Wildcats coached by Steve Utych.
Season 1 had 12 teams, 1 computerized, all expansion:
Rutgers-Computerized
Cal St. Northridge-Patrick Puhl
Illinois-Lachlan Strong
Indiana-Jess
Iowa-James Oxenreider
Kentucky-Steve Utych
Ohio St.-Thomas Cannon
Rhode Island-Eric LeBeau
UMass-Greg Jolin
UNI-Bruce Gramowski
UNLV-African Monk
Virginia Tech-Mr. Strong
The preseason tournament kicked things off in late December of 2000. UNI took the 1 seed into the
tournament, but #10 UMass left victorious over UNI in the Championship 54-53 in an upset run.
Games 1-5 went up with UNI starting 2-3. Ohio St. was the only undefeated at 5-0, with Kentucky
and Iowa close behind at 4-1. Iowa lost their game 5 to Ohio St.
At this point the game went down with technical difficulties for about a month. However,
it came back with all 15 games remaining at once in the beginning of February.
Games 6-10 saw Ohio St. fall to 7-3 and Kentucky dropped to 6-4. Iowa remained on pace
at 7-3, while Illinois and Virginia Tech joined the lead group.
Game 8 also had the first 2 overtime games of Version 2. UNLV hosted Iowa to a 59-51 overtime win,
and the host also won in California as Cal St. Northridge beat UMass 65-62 in OT.
Games 11-15 put Ohio St. back in the lead with an 11-4 record, while Illinois and Iowa dropped back
to 10-5. Indiana also steamrolled from 6-4 to 10-5.
Games 16-20 evened Ohio St. and Illinois at 14-6 for the best records. Iowa and Indiana lost ground
to 12-8 joining Kentucky and Virginia Tech. Meanwhile, preseason favorite UNI finished at 10-10.
The Big 10 Conference Tournament saw Virginia Tech just beat out Kentucky in round 1, then in the
semis, Indiana upset #2 seeded Ohio St. by a point, and Illinois slaughter the Hokies. Illinois won
the Championship over Indiana by 4.
The Big 12 Conference Tournament saw UNI beat UNLV and Cal St. Northridge over the Rams to advnace.
There Iowa beat the Matadors and UMass soundly defeated the Panthers. However, in the Championship,
the Minutemen upset the Hawkeyes by 3.
To the Big Dance where 9 of the 11 teams advanced(Rhode Island and UNLV failed). In a play in for
the Elite 8, UNI beat Cal St. Northridge by 11 to then upset 1 seed Illinois by 1. Virginia Tech
also knocked off 5 seeded Iowa by 2, Indiana over UMass by 5, and Kentucky upset 2 seeded Ohio St.
by 16.
In the Final 4, Virginia Tech knocked off Cinderella Northern Iowa by 5, and Indiana just knocked
off Cinderella Kentucky by 1 to advance. There it was 4 seed Virginia Tech and 3 seed Indiana for
the Title. Virginia Tech held off to win by 6.
In the All-Star Tournament, each squad(2 per conference) went 4-4 overall with the Big 12 Yellow
taking first, the Big 12 Green second, Big 10 Red third, and Big 10 Blue last.
A change was announced to make for more shots and points in Season 2.
