In news that comes as somewhat of a surprise, Kevin Love of the Minnesota Timberwolves is the cover athlete for EA Sports NCAA Basketball 09. Love entered the NBA Draft after his freshman season at UCLA and was taken fifth in the draft by the Memphis Grizzlies. He was then involved in a trade for OJ Mayo that sent him to Minnesota. He averaged 17.5 ppg and 10.6 rpg and helped lead UCLA to the Final Four. Love was certainly not the most likely choice to get the cover. Both Derek Rose and M...

EA Sports is currently hosting a community event for NCAA Basketball 09. Community manager Marcus Stephenson is running a live blog of the event on EA Sports World which stretches through tomorrow. You can check that out here for the first day and for day two here. Things have been puzzling surrounding this title. It is two months prior to releasing and the game hasn't been officially announced. No news has been made available on it, not even the cover athlete. In fact the game isn't even...

NCAA Basketball 09 has been kept under wraps by EA Sports for quite a while now. For most titles at the very least some basic information would be known three months out from release. Sooner rather than later the first details are going to break which will likely include the cover athlete. Like last year there are two players that stand out from the crowd. With the 09 titles it was Kevin Durant (March Madness) and Greg Oden (College Hoops) that were no-brainers. But the history of the col...

NCAA Strategies, which has received a copy of NCAA Football 09 for the PS3, mentioned today that within the previews presented on the game is a quick trailer which lets on to a name change for the March Madness franchise. It will now simply be known as NCAA Basketball. It looks like Fred @ SG was actually the first to notice. 2K Sports' decision to end their College Hoops franchise opened up the door for this change. It makes sense in that the name matches the football branding and it will ...

Over the last couple months I speculated that the Bracket Pack would return for March Madness 08 and today came official word that is has arrived. It appears to be exclusive to the Xbox 360 at a price of 400 MS points and is available now in the Marketplace. Not only does it include the 65 team NCAA Tournament bracket but also updated team ratings, 25 new alternate/third jerseys from tournament teams, and the authentic Alamodome Final Four court. Curiously Oregon's McArthur Arena, which ...

The voting has been tallied and Oregon's McArthur Court has come out on top and will be the free downloadable arena offered for March Madness 08. It beat out the arenas of Virginia, USC, Georgia Tech, Arkansas, and Purdue. An ETA on when to expect the court has not been given but it seems likely to come this week along with other content. While nothing has been announced regarding the return of the Bracket Pack I think that's a good bet this week as well considering how well it was receiv...

EA is holding an online tournament with March Madness 08 which will take place on Tuesday March 18th. The prize to the winner will be an autographed Dick Vitale basketball. For details and to sign up to participate click here. With the voting on which of the six new areans will be offered as a free download closing off, there is that to go along with the likely Bracket Pack (although nothing has officially been stated on that as of yet) to look forward to on the ...

Votes are now being accepted for the arena that will be offered as free downloadable content for March Madness 08. Email in your choice of the six options to mstephenson@ea.com The options are USC's Galen Center, Virginia's John Paul Jones Arena, Oregon's McArthur Court, Arkansas' Bud Walton Arena, Purdue's Mackey Arena, and Georgia Tech's Alexander Memorial Coliseum. The winner will have their authentic arena made available for free as downloadable content prior to the start of the March...