See What's In Version 2023

When You Think College Basketball - You Think Tournaments

The Big Dance, March Madness, whatever you call it, it all means the same thing: The College Basketball Tournament in March is one of the most anticipated sporting events of the year. Cactus League College Basketball handles all of the chores of running the tournaments, so you can enjoy playing and/or coaching. Plus, there is the world-famous Cactus League College Basketball Tournament Real-Time, where you can play & coach the Tournament BEFORE the Tournament.

 You Coach, Play, and/or Watch - Cactus League College Basketball Does All The Work

• Each season is delivered to you with the Actual Tournament Seedings all set up and ready to go! All 68 teams (yes, Play-In games are included, of course) or 64 teams for earlier seasons are ready to hit the court. Plus, you get EVERY Division I team!
  
  
• You can decide to play games instantly, watch them unfold or coach a team. You can do any combination of these throughout the tournament.
   
• The Cactus League College Basketball Tournament Module does it all!

• Your Tournament - Your Way.
   
• You see the brackets (and, of course, they update as the Tournament progresses), the schedule and seedings.
   
• Want to coach your favorite team to the Championship? Just a couple of mouse clicks and it's all set up. You can play all other games instantly or watch them if you want.

Conference Tournaments Too

In addition to The Big Dance, each Cactus League College Basketball Season comes to you with EVERY Conference Tournament, with the actual brackets for each conference. If you've followed Conference Tournaments over the years, you know that some of them are very complicated. But, Cactus League College Basketball handles them all! Again, you can choose which games to play automatically or manually, which games to watch and/or coach. You are in charge! You can enjoy the games while Cactus League College Basketball takes care of the tournament, including the stats and all other administrative chores.

"All that I can say is that Cactus League College Basketball kicks ass! I've been a loyal Cactus customer for many years and have never been disappointed. The game quality, service and support are second to none." P. Moody Boulder, CO

Cactus League College Basketball Is A Lot More Than Just Tournaments

Incredible Detail - Easy To Play

You can make every in-game coaching decision a real College Basketball coach makes. You can coach against the AutoCoach, have AutoCoach take care of both teams, or anything in between. If you just want to make the substitutions you can do that and AutoCoach will handle everything else. But, if you want total control - right down to matchups, type of defense and offensive concepts, then hang on! You will experience all the joys and frustrations of a real College Basketball coach. And, you can't be fired!

You decide whether to play a game automatically (in just a few seconds) or manually, where you can play as quickly or as slowly as you wish. And, you can always change your mind. If you are watching and coaching a 40-point blowout, you can finish the game instantly with just a couple of keystrokes.

There are hundreds of options. Each season is delivered to you with the actual rules of that season as the default. But, you can change them to suit your desires. In fact, almost everything in Cactus League College Basketball is customizable. You can truly make it your game!

 Every Division I Team With Actual Complete Schedule

Most of the Cactus League College Basketball Seasons include every Division I Conference and every Division I team. You can play a single conference's schedule or put them all together and play all of the thousands of games that make up a College Basketball season.

And, of course, you can just pick two teams and play them. Each team's logo is included, as well as their coach and you'll see the teams displayed using realistic team colors (which you can change, if you wish).

Take a look at all past seasons and speciality season packages

AutoSchedule

Each season is delivered to you with the complete schedule, which is displayed graphically and organized chronologically. Organization is very important in College Basketball because the season involves over 5000 games! There are now over 30 conferences and over 300 Division I teams. Imagine what a mess that could be if things weren't organized.

You choose which games to play automatically (in just a few seconds, depending upon the speed of your computer) and which games to play manually. All of your automatic/manual decisions can be made with a couple of mouse-clicks. Also, if you want to manually play all games involving one team (like Duke or Florida Gulf Coast or any team) or every team, you can set that up very easily.

Lots of flexibility and the decisions are yours. Each season is delivered to you with each conference's schedule, so you can play just that conference if you wish. But, if you want it all, you can merge all of the games into one schedule (it is easy to do) and play all of the 5000+ games chronologically.

You will be amazed at the depth and detail of Cactus League College Basketball. All of the complexities are behind the scenes. If you have ever run ANY Windows program, you will have almost no learning curve with Cactus League College Basketball. You can be playing your first game within seconds of installing it.

Game Play & Coaching

You set your team's starting lineup, make substitutions, keep your players fresh for the stretch run, decide defensive strategies & matchups, double-team, decide how you want to run your offense and lots more.

Or, not.

It's your call. You can have as little or as much coaching control as you want. You decide what you want to handle during the game and your AutoCoach will handle the rest. That same fine-tuned over 20 years AutoCoach will be running the other team so you better be prepared.

Don't feel like coaching today? Then, don't. You can watch your team perform under the AutoCoach's direction.

With the unbelievably detailed play-by-play text describing the game, you will be thoroughly entertained no matter how you want to play the game.

Selection Sunday is the biggest day of the College Basketball Season. The day after Selection Sunday is the 2nd biggest day. That is when Cactus League College Basketball Real-Time is released.

Now, you can PLAY and COACH the Tournament BEFORE the Tournament. In addition to the 68 Tournament Teams, all seeded and ready to play with the Tournament Module, you will get every Division I Team - over 300 - at the same time.

So, the day after Selection Sunday, you will have it all - The Complete Season at your fingertips.

"Wow!!! I got the Tournament Real-Time Monday morning. It is amazing that you can make it that quickly (the day after the seeds are announced) and have been playing tournaments ever since. Your company is state-of-the art in computer sports games." R.Speigel, Indianapolis, IN

Statistics

All game statistics, box scores, play-by-play reports and scorecards are maintained and saved automatically. You can view them at any time during a game or after the game in the Statistics Module.

Everything is organized, intuitive and easy to access and understand. The reports that are included in the game are complete and detailed, but you can change their design or create your own! Include the stats you want in the order you want.

And, oh by the way, in most reports you can sort by any statistic, in ascending or descending order. The pictures tell the story:

Download full-size screen shots of every thumbnail on this page plus many more

Records

There are approximately 200 Team & Individual Records that are maintained automatically by Cactus League College Basketball. Here are just a couple of examples.

League Management

Here is where you see it all: all the conferences, teams and players. See each team's roster, each player's ratings and statistics. You choose which Conferences to display in the Player Pool or display them all! Again, your choice.

Like every other part of Cactus League College Basketball, the fun is in the exploring (right-clicking will open up a whole world of detail in League Management and everywhere else in Cactus League College Basketball) and seeing what is included. The detail is unprecedented.

Free Game Updates

The game updates are free, throughout the life of the version. You can download and install the Free Updates directly from the game and there is an option to check for them automatically. You can also come here and click the 'Download' menu item. You'll find all of your downloads in one location.

Man Does Not Live By Basketball Alone

Anytime during the game, when you need a break, you can pop up some "non-basketball" entertainment. We guarantee that those pictures will refresh you and you will be at your best when you resume your game!

There Is More

It would be impossible to include everything that is in Cactus League College Basketball on this page. The game was first developed in 1993 as a DOS game - (how many of you know what DOS was?).

It has been upgraded every year: the game engine and the AutoCoach's decisions are being constantly improved; and the game is keeping up with technology. The hundreds of new features that have been added over the years have been seemlessly integrated into the game. When Windows first became popular, we developed a Windows version.

We are continuing to improve the game to this day and will continue to do so. Every year we get lots of comments from basketball fans marvelling at how we have come up with even more to add to the game. Another frequent comment is: "I've been playing your game for many years and I just saw _____ for the first time." This is why basketball fans continue to enjoy Cactus League College Basketball season after season, year after year.