Ranking the Most Talented Rosters in College Basketball History

No men's college basketball team will ever be as talented as the 1968-69 UCLA Bruins, but it took quite the journey through the history books to figure out the other 19 talent-loaded rosters that belong on this list behind Lew Alcindor and company.

To even be considered for the top 20, teams were required to have at least two players who were either named to an All-NBA team or taken as a top-five pick in an NBA draft. The rationale behind that criteria is that it should result in rosters with multiple players who either became great or were expected to become great.

How each team actually performed in its given season had no bearing on its candidacy, but it should come as no surprise that the vast majority of these teams at least reached the Final Four, given the absurd amount of talent they each had.

Schools are more than welcome to make multiple appearances in our top 20, and several did. However, we require a gap of at least four years between rosters from the same program. And, yes, this rule was absolutely instated to keep UCLA from appearing 10 times. No need to write about Bill Walton, Sidney Wicks and Lucius Allen three times each.

Aside from that, anything goes.

One thing that bears mentioning, though: Only a handful of teams from the past 20 years were even considered. That's partially because players from the past decade haven't exhausted their full careers yet, but also almost entirely because of early entries in the NBA draft.

Between one-and-done players from the past 10 years and the none-and-done high schoolers who were going pro before that, it's exceptionally more difficult to create all-time great rosters than it was when guys like Michael Jordan and Oscar Robertson played three years of college ball.

We hope you enjoy this ride through the past 75 years of hoops. Be sure to let us know which teams we misjudged or missed altogether.

1953-54 Duquesne Dukes

Did you know that Duquesne once produced the No. 1 overall draft pick in consecutive seasons? Well, now you do. Dick Ricketts and Si Green did so in 1955 and 1956 after playing on the 1953-54 team that went 26-2 before losing to our next honorable mention in the NIT finals.

1953-54 Holy Cross Crusaders

Featuring Tom Heinsohn and Togo Palazzi, the Crusaders went 26-2, won the NIT and were arguably the best team in the country. They didn't participate in the NCAA tournament, though, because the 1950s were weird for college basketball.

1953-54 Kentucky Wildcats

Apparently 1953-54 was one heck of a year for future talent, as Kentucky went 25-0 on the backs of Cliff Hagan and Frank Ramsey. However, the Wildcats didn't play in either postseason tournament because their three best players were grad students, and grad students were ineligible for postseason play. Did I mention the 1950s were weird for college basketball?

1973-74 North Carolina State Wolfpack

NC State was ineligible for postseason play in 1972-73, but it followed up that 27-0 season with a 30-1 record en route to a national championship. David Thompson and Tom Burleson combined for 48 points in the 80-77 Final Four win over UCLA, putting an end to the Bruins' streak of seven consecutive NCAA championships.

1976-77 Minnesota Golden Gophers

Officially, this season never happened. Minnesota went 24-3 but was already ineligible for the NCAA tournament and later forfeited all of its games from that season because a couple of players sold complimentary tickets. Still, a roster with Kevin McHale, Mychal Thompson and Ray Williams—all 10,000-point scorers in the NBA—mandates an honorable mention.

1978-79 Michigan State Spartans

Magic Johnson helped the Spartans beat Larry Bird and Indiana State in one of the more iconic games in tournament history, but Jay Vincent was the only other player on the roster who really amounted to anything in the pros.

1983-84 Auburn Tigers

Pretty great tandem here between Charles Barkley (22.1 PPG, 11.7 RPG in NBA) and Chuck Person (14.7 PPG in NBA), but the Tigers didn't have anyone else and lost 11 games.

2000-01 Michigan State Spartans

Michigan State had an unbelievable run at the turn of the century, earning three consecutive No. 1 seeds and advancing to three consecutive Final Fours. Jason Richardson and Zach Randolph played together on the third and final team. They have each averaged better than 17.0 points per game in their NBA careers.

2004-05 Florida Gators

One of the most notable instances where "best" and "most talented" deviated drastically, Florida had an incredible team made up of better-than-average players who just happened to stay in school for multiple seasons. As far as talent goes, it wasn't the championship teams that topped their list, but the year before their two titles when the Gators had David Lee, Al Horford and Joakim Noah on the same roster.

2009-10 Kentucky Wildcats

2014-15 Kentucky Wildcats

Casualties of the rule instated to keep UCLA from completely dominating our top 10, only one John Calipari-coached Kentucky team was able to make the cut after we decided to go with Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Terrence Jones over John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins.

It will be interesting to see where this past season's team ends up a decade from now. With four lottery picks, six total draft picks and a few others from the roster who should eventually play in the pros, it certainly wouldn't be a surprise if 2014-15 Kentucky went down as one of the five most talented rosters ever. But it's also way too early to make that call.

Record: 27-2 (Round of 32)

Future Pros: Mark Aguirre, Terry Cummings

This is the only team on the list that ultimately sent just two players to the NBA, but they were certainly good ones.

Mark Aguirre was one of the best college basketball players of all time. He scored 2,182 points in just three seasons, averaging 24.5 points per game without a three-point arc. That isn't exactly Pete Maravich ridiculous, but it was good enough for him to be named the Naismith College Player of the Year as a sophomore and the Sporting News College Player of the Year as a junior.

Aguirre was taken with the No. 1 overall pick in the 1981 draft. Despite averaging 20.0 points per game over the course of his 13-year NBA career, he was somehow never named to an All-NBA team.

Fellow Blue Demon Terry Cummings actually went on to have a better NBA career, lasting 18 years in the pros while earning All-NBA second- and third-team honors once each.

Cummings wasn't quite the scoring phenom Aguirre was—he averaged 13.0 points and 9.0 rebounds per game during the 1980-81 season—but he was a double-double machine who was taken with the second overall pick in the 1982 draft.

Aguirre and Cummings each finished his NBA career with more than 18,000 points, but they were nowhere to be found when it mattered most for top-seeded DePaul. In the round of 32 loss to Saint Joseph's by a one-point margin, they combined for just 14 points.

Record: 23-9 (Round of 32)

Future Pros: Shaquille O'Neal, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, Stanley Roberts, Geert Hammink

Lest you think Johnny Jones is the only LSU coach who can get his teams to underachieve, ask yourself how Dale Brown could have possibly led this roster to nine losses and a No. 5 seed.

Shaquille O'Neal was one of the best players in NBA history. With 28,596 career points, he ranks sixth on the all-time scoring list. He's also eighth in blocks and 14th in rebounding.

Compared to his sophomore and junior seasons (25.8 PPG, 14.3 RPG, 5.1 BPG), though, he had a modest stat line as a freshman in 1989-90, tallying 13.9 points, 12.0 rebounds and 3.6 blocks per game. (Could you even imagine a current player spending three years in college after doing that as a freshman?)

That's not because he struggled in his first season, but because the Tigers had two other giants on the roster.

Stanley Roberts played just one season with LSU, but the 7'0", 285-pound center averaged 14.1 points and 9.8 rebounds per game. The Tigers also had 7'0", 260-pound Geert Hammink who barely even got to touch the court until after O'Neal and Roberts left.

And, oh yeah, they had the No. 3 pick in the 1990 NBA draft, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf. Seemingly the only player on the roster who couldn't dunk without jumping, the shooting guard put up 29.0 points per game in his two-year college career before a short but respectable stint in the NBA.

Despite all that talent, LSU never made it work. The Tigers opened the season ranked No. 2 in the AP poll but didn't even finish top two in the SEC.

Record: 34-1 (Final Four)

Future Pros: Larry Johnson, Stacey Augmon, Greg Anthony, Elmore Spencer, Evric Gray

UNLV technically shouldn't have made the cut—Larry Johnson was the only player on the roster named to an All-NBA team or taken with a top-five pick—but we're making an exception because Stacey Augmon went No. 9 and Greg Anthony went No. 12 after playing for arguably the best college basketball team of the past 39 years.

UNLV was barely even challenged at any point during the 1990-91 season until running into Duke in the Final Four—one year removed from beating the Blue Devils by a 30-point margin in the 1990 title game.

But apparently the whole was far greater than the sum of its parts, because Johnson was the only member of the roster to even appear in an All-Star Game. Both he and Augmon really began to fizzle out after five seasons, while Anthony only had one particularly noteworthy year, putting up 14.0 points per game for a Vancouver Grizzlies team that went 15-67 in its inaugural season.

However, it has now been a quarter of a century since those Rebels played together, and we still spent a good chunk of this past season discussing whether the 2014-15 Kentucky Wildcats were as good or better than that team. The list would be incomplete without them.

Record: 25-3 (Sweet 16)

Future Pros: Oscar Robertson, Connie Dierking, Ralph Davis, Wayne Stevens

Cincinnati advanced to five consecutive Final Fours from 1959-63, winning two national championships along the way. However, we had to pick the 1957-58 team because it was the only one that had both Oscar Robertson and Connie Dierking.

The Big O put up video game numbers, averaging 33.8 points, 15.2 rebounds and 7.1 assists in college. He was the Sporting News Player of the Year in each of his three seasons. It's downright absurd that the Bearcats weren't able to win a national championship until after he left—30-some-odd years before Bill Simmons started referring to such a phenomenon as the Ewing Theory.

He wasn't the only one filling up the box score, though, as Dierking averaged 15.8 points and 14.9 rebounds per game during the 1957-58 season before getting taken with the fifth overall pick that April.

However, Dierking put up less-than-modest numbers for the bulk of his NBA career. Ralph Davis lasted just two years in the NBA, but at least that's better than the eight games Wayne Stevens managed to play.

We had to get Robertson on the list somewhere, but as far as full rosters go, there are better fish in the sea.

Record: 35-4 (National Champs)

Future Pros: Shane Battier, Mike Dunleavy, Carlos Boozer, Jay Williams, Chris Duhon

This Duke roster would probably rank higher on the list if Jay Williams' pro career hadn't ended after one season due to a devastating motorcycle accident.

Of the bunch, he was the one taken with the highest draft pick, selected No. 2 overall by the Bulls in 2002. He averaged 19.3 points and 6.0 assists per game in his three seasons with Duke, but there's no question his 2000-01 sophomore year was his best—even though he won the Naismith award as a junior.

Williams couldn't have been less alone on that championship quest, though. Shane Battier won the Naismith award in 2001 and was taken with the No. 6 pick in the 2001 draft after putting a nice capstone on a great college career.

Mike Dunleavy and Carlos Boozer were both sophomores on that team, but they put up better than 12 points per game. Chris Duhon even pitched in nicely with 7.2 points and 4.5 assists per game as a freshman.

As far as NBA careers go, however, this team wasn't all that special. Boozer was the only one to be named to an All-NBA team, and he merely received third-team honors once. Rather than stars, they all ended up being solid role players—or ESPN analysts, in Williams' case.

Record: 32-2 (National Champs)

Future Pros: Alex Groza, Ralph Beard, Wallace "Wah Wah" Jones, Cliff Barker

I'm not going to sit here and pretend I was alive to see this team in action, but Jay Williams' what-if motorcycle situation isn't even in the same galaxy as this one.

Alex Groza was a three-time All-American and was named the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player in both 1948 and 1949—Kentucky won the title both years. He was also named the Helms Foundation Player of the Year in this his senior season. Better yet, he made first-team All-NBA in his first two professional seasons.

Ralph Beard wasn't far behind Groza. He was a first-team All-American in three straight seasons and was also named to All-NBA teams in his first two seasons—one a first team and one a second team.

But their careers both abruptly ended in 1951 when they were banned from the NBA for life as part of a massive point-shaving scandal that impacted multiple schools. (At least Kentucky immediately recovered from it. CCNY and LIU were never the same again.)

Groza averaged 22.5 points and 10.7 rebounds per game in his very brief NBA career. Beard was good for 15.9 points and 4.4 assists per contest. They could have been Hall of Famers if they had been permitted to play anything close to a full career.

Throw in Wah Wah Jones and Cliff Barker as players on the roster who eventually made the pros as well, and this was undeniably one of the most talented rosters ever assembled.

Record: 38-2 (National Champs)

Future Pros: Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Terrence Jones, Doron Lamb, Marquis Teague, Darius Miller, Kyle Wiltjer

Jumping straight from one Kentucky roster to another, it's extremely difficult to gauge where these Wildcats should stack up against the other options because of how little we have seen of their NBA careers.

Anthony Davis is obviously a pretty incredible talent. If he stays healthy, he'll be a 10- or 15-time All-Star who finishes his career in the top 25 in points, rebounds and blocks in NBA history.

It's the rest of the roster that keeps us from considering this team for a spot in the top 10.

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist is extremely skilled, but he's still got a long way to go to justify being the No. 2 overall pick in 2012. Terrence Jones has actually been more valuable than MKG, and he missed 41 games this past season with nerve inflammation in his leg and barely even played as a rookie.

Elsewhere, Doron Lamb and Marquis Teague didn't even appear in a game in 2014-15, and Darius Miller logged a grand total of 43 minutes to avoid a DNP of his own. The trio has combined for just 871 points in the three years since being drafted. AD23 had nearly twice that many points last season.

Because they were so unstoppable just four years ago, it feels like this team deserves to be higher on the list. However, unless Kidd-Gilchrist discovers another gear or Kyle Wiltjer makes it to the NBA and amounts to something, it might not be long before we look back on this Wildcats team and wonder how The Brow carried them to 38 wins.

Record: 29-0 (National Champs)

Future Pros: Bill Russell, K.C. Jones, Mike Farmer

Much like the 1957-58 Cincinnati Bearcats, this San Francisco roster boils down to one of the greatest players in NBA history and a couple of guys who weren't nearly as successful. It's only because the Dons went undefeated and won a title that they rank a few spots higher.

As far as the all-time great goes, Bill Russell won 11 NBA championships with the Boston Celtics and averaged a ludicrous 22.5 rebounds per game over the course of his 13-year career. Despite playing center, he shot just 44.0 percent from the field and 56.1 percent from the free-throw line for his career. Even though he's one of the best ever, he could have been even better.

K.C. Jones is also in the NBA Hall of Fame, though he lasted just nine seasons in the Association and never put up great numbers or even played in an All-Star Game. The fruit of being a role player on eight championship teams is pretty sweet. His successful coaching career certainly didn't hurt his HOF candidacy, either.

Mike Farmer was the No. 3 pick in the 1958 draft, but he ended up being a bust. Farmer averaged just 6.7 points and 4.6 rebounds in his career.

But for one year in college, they were untouchable. Save for one seven-point win over Marquette early in the season, the Dons won every single game in 1955-56 by a double-digit margin. Russell averaged better than 20 points and 20 rebounds per game for a second straight year.

Record: 29-5 (Elite Eight)

Future Pros: Dikembe Mutombo, Alonzo Mourning, Charles Smith, Jaren Jackson

For three seasons, Georgetown had quite possibly the most incredible frontcourt duo in college basketball history.

Dikembe Mutombo wasn't much of a scorer, but he was one of the best shot-blockers the game has ever known. He is second to only Hakeem Olajuwon on the career leaderboard for blocked shots. He averaged one block for every 11.2 minutes on the court.

That's a lot of finger-wagging.

But Alonzo Mourning was even better until a kidney disease drastically impacted the rest of his career. Through his first 10 seasons, he recorded one block for every 11.5 minutes on the court and ended up 11th on that career leaderboard. He was also averaging slightly better than 20 points per game before the transplant, and he managed to finish his career with 14,311 points.

Charles Smith was actually the most valuable player on Georgetown's 1988-89 roster, though. He averaged 18.7 points per game as a senior but scored just 186 points in his NBA career. Jaren Jackson had a considerably more successful pro career, and he averaged better than 12 points per game on this Hoyas roster.

Unfortunately, Jackson shot just 1-of-10 from the field in the Elite Eight against Duke, while Christian Laettner, Phil Henderson and Danny Ferry couldn't miss.

Record: 34-3 (National Champs)

Future Pros: Patrick Ewing, David Wingate, Reggie Williams, Bill Martin, Michael Jackson

We just encountered a great Hoyas frontcourt tandem in Alonzo Mourning and Dikembe Mutombo, but Patrick Ewing was nearly as unstoppable as both of those men combined.

Ewing's career averages tapered off a bit at the end, but he averaged 22.8 points and 10.4 rebounds per game during his 15 seasons with the Knicks—a slight upgrade on the 15.3 points and 9.2 rebounds he averaged in four seasons at Georgetown.

In a word, he was a machine, but he was no one-man show.

Four other Hoyas averaged between 8.9 and 11.2 points per game that season for a well-balanced rotation of five guys who all spent time in the NBA. Bill Martin and Michael Jackson barely made any professional impact, but Reggie Williams averaged 12.5 points per game in the NBA, and David Wingate was a pretty solid role player for 15 seasons.

Ewing is the reason they're on the list, though. En route to 24,815 career points, he was named to seven All-NBA teams, including one first-team honor.

Record: 32-0 (National Champs)

Future Pros: Scott May, Kent Benson, Quinn Buckner, Tom Abernathy, Bobby Wilkerson, Wayne Radford

What to do with the most recent undefeated team in men's college basketball?

At this point, the 1975-76 Indiana Hoosiers are more of an ideal than a reality. We bring them up in every single conversation about undefeated champions, but no one from that roster really did anything in the NBA.

Scott May won every 1976 Player of the Year award under the sun before being taken with the No. 2 pick in that year's draft. But after a moderately impressive rookie season, he quickly began to disappear and was out of the league entirely by the age of 28.

Kent Benson was the No. 1 pick in 1977 before playing nearly twice as many games as May did, but even he only averaged 9.1 points per game in his career. Either he or Quinn Buckner (8.2 PPG, 4.3 APG) had the best NBA career from this roster, and that isn't saying much.

But with the 40th anniversary of their perfect season coming up this year, those Hoosiers are probably the most talked-about team in college basketball history. Flamed-out pro careers or not, that's got to count for something.

Record: 31-5 (National Runner-Up)

Future Pros: Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King, Eric Riley

Three cheers for the Fab Five.

Before the scandal that set Michigan back a decade and before the most infamous timeout signal in the history of sports, the Wolverines had the best recruiting class ever assembled.

Ray Jackson never made it to the NBA, and Jimmy King only really got there for one season, but Chris Webber, Juwan Howard and Jalen Rose were each very successful in the pros.

Howard had the longest career by far. He outlasted  the others by at least five years each and hung around just long enough to ride the coattails of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to a pair of NBA titles. By that time, he wasn't even a shell of the guy who averaged 17.8 points per game through his first 10 pro seasons.

Rose did the least of the trio, failing to partake in an All-Star Game. However, he had a pretty strong run from the age of 27 to 32 with multiple seasons of better than 20 points per game.

Webber was the best of the bunch but undeniably had the most difficulty staying on the court. Webber failed to appear in more than 76 games in any year. With 15 seasons and a career average of 20.7 points per game, he should have scored close to 25,000 points. Due to a seemingly constant state of injury, though, he finished well short of that mark at 17,182.

It was a great career—especially for his bank account—but Webber is right up there with Grant Hill as one of the biggest "What if he had stayed healthy?" phenoms of the past few decades.

All told, Webber, Rose and Howard combined for more than 46,000 career points in the NBA, making this one of the best trios to have played together in college.

Record: 34-4 (Final Four)

Future Pros: Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison, Brendan Haywood, Shammond Williams, Makhtar N'Diaye

It's a shame that Dean Smith decided to hang up his clipboard when he did, because this North Carolina team legitimately could have gone undefeated.

Smith stunningly announced his retirement just five weeks before the 1997-98 season began, handing over the reins to longtime assistant Bill Guthridge. He steered the ship admirably, but Smith could have been the X-factor who pushed this team over the top.

Coaching situation aside, the talent on this roster was immense.

Vince Carter was to the NBA what Ken Griffey Jr. was to MLB. Everyone growing up with the game during his decade of theatrics adored Vinsanity. The elbow-in-the-rim dunk is arguably the most iconic moment in Slam Dunk Contest history, and that's coming from someone who grew up a Duke fan, conditioned to hate all things Tar Heels.

But he wasn't just some slamming sideshow. The man averaged 23.5 points per game for the first 12 seasons of his career. He made All-NBA second team and third team once each and arguably got robbed of a ton of votes by the lack of a supporting cast that Toronto and New Jersey surrounded him with.

Antawn Jamison was no slouch, either. He didn't make as many nightly highlight reels, but both he and Carter are on the short list of 40 players in NBA history with at least 20,000 career points. Jamison was also pretty unbelievable during the 1997-98 season, averaging 22.2 points and 10.5 rebounds per game en route to the Naismith Trophy. 

Too bad Brendan Haywood was just an under-utilized freshman that season. With Ed Cota and Shammond Williams along the perimeter and Carter and Jamison dominating everyone, having the 12.0 points and 7.0 rebounds version of Haywood instead of the 2.9 points and 2.4 rebounds one could have made a world of difference.

Record: 35-4 (Final Four)

Future Pros: Russell Westbrook, Kevin Love, Darren Collison, Luc Mbah a Moute

Our highest-ranked team of the past 20 years, the Bruins would have probably come in even higher on the list if not for two things working against them: incomplete careers and better UCLA teams.

On the first front, what we've seen thus far is quite good. Russell Westbrook and Kevin Love have been phenomenal (when healthy), and Darren Collison and Luc Mbah a Moute have each been extremely serviceable role players—albeit primarily for teams that have missed the playoffs.

But if you try to compare seven years of Love and Westbrook to the full careers of some of the all-time greats, it's no contest. Though great, neither member of UCLA dynamic duo has been named to an All-NBA first team.

Of course, many of those all-time greats also came through UCLA, so the current guys are unavoidably and unsuccessfully trying to stack up on multiple levels against the likes of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Walton and several others we'll encounter at the top of our list.

Kudos on three consecutive Final Four appearances and arguably the best roster in more than two decades, but there are better teams further back in the history books.

Record: 34-2 (National Champs)

Future Pros: Christian Laettner, Grant Hill, Bobby Hurley, Cherokee Parks, Antonio Lang, Brian Davis

Aside from perhaps 1948-49 Kentucky, this was the toughest team to rank.

Though he spent much of his career playing for teams that had little to no hope of doing any postseason damage, Christian Laettner had a pretty decent NBA career. He averaged at least 16 points per game in each of his first five seasons, including one All-Star selection. But compared to being the best and most hated player on the best and most hated team in the country, 11,121 NBA points felt like a pretty big letdown.

Speaking of letdowns, Grant Hill played for 19 seasons and averaged 16.7 points per game. As was the case with Chris Webber, that could have amounted to more than 25,000 career points, but thanks to a litany of injuries, he retired with "just" 17,137.

Bobby Hurley was also a bit of a "What might have been?" guy. Taken with the seventh overall pick in the 1993 draft, he played just five lackluster seasons before a motorcycle accident ended his career. (Can we agree that Duke point guards should never be allowed near a motorcycle again?)

However, this Duke team won back-to-back titles, the latter of which sent six players to the NBA. Laettner, Hill and Hurley probably could and should have had more successful professional careers, but that doesn't change the fact that this was one of the most talented rosters ever.

Record: 31-3 (National Runner-Up)

Future Pros: Clyde Drexler, Hakeem Olajuwon, Michael Young, Larry Micheaux

Phi Slama Jama had the best tandem ever.

Clyde "The Glide" Drexler was a 10-time NBA All-Star who was eventually inducted into the Hall of Fame. He averaged 20.4 points, 6.1 rebounds and 5.6 assists per game while spending an entire, incredible career overshadowed by Michael Jordan.

Despite playing all 15 seasons with a playoff team—amounting to an "extra" 9.7 games per season—Drexler still had enough left in the tank to average 18.4 points per game in his final year.

Here's the crazy part: Drexler was the second-best player from this 1982-83 Houston team.

Hakeem "The Dream" Olajuwon was a 12-time All-Star and was named to 12 All-NBA teams—six first teams, two second teams and three third teams. Olajuwon was even the 1994 MVP while Jordan was busy striking out in the Chicago White Sox's farm system.

Drexler is 29th on the all-time scoring list with 22,195 points. Olajuwon ranks 10th with 26,946. They're the only college teammates who are both ranked in the top 39.

If anyone else on the roster had amounted to anything, these Cougars would probably be No. 2 on the list. But Michael Young and Larry Micheaux were the only other players to make it to the NBA, and they combined for just 553 career points.

Record: 32-2 (National Champs)

Future Pros: Michael Jordan, Sam Perkins, James Worthy

Hard to believe a team with just three NBA players could rank this high on the list, but holy guacamole were these three players good.

Michael Jordan averaged 30.1 points per game over the course of a 15-year career than spanned 19 years. The Chicago years were so unbelievable that he averaged 22.9 points per game as a 38-year-old with the Wizards—and the world wasn't even impressed. Save your LeBron James and Kobe Bryant cries for another time. Jordan is the greatest guard to ever play college basketball.

Alongside the future five-time NBA MVP were James Worthy and Sam Perkins.

Worthy was the No. 1 overall pick in 1982 before becoming a seven-time All-Star with the Lakers. Leg injuries limited Worthy to just 12 professional seasons, but he put up 16,320 points during that time.

Perkins had more longevity than Worthy but failed to reach an All-Star Game in any of his 17 seasons. Still, the No. 4 pick in the 1984 draft finished his career with 15,324 points.

Drexler and Olajuwon are the only pair of college teammates with at least 21,000 points each, but Jordan, Perkins and Worthy are the only trio of college teammates with more than 15,000 points each.

Which is more impressive? Well, it's a close enough call that we're putting North Carolina ahead of Houston because the Tar Heels actually won the national championship.

Record: 26-4 (Final Four)

Future Pros: Bill Walton, Kevin (Jamaal) Wilkes, Marques Johnson, Dave Meyers, Richard Washington, Andre McCarter, Greg Lee, Ralph Drollinger

UCLA won the national championship 10 times in a span of 12 years, so, naturally, one of its most talent-loaded rosters was the one that got bounced in the Final Four.

How can you possibly argue with eight NBA players on one roster, though?

Sure, some of them didn't amount to much—Greg Lee and Ralph Drollinger played a combined 16 games—but the 1973-74 Bruins also had way more than their fair share of studs.

Bill Walton should have been an all-time great, but he suffered through just about every lower-body injury one can possibly endure through 10 horribly painful NBA seasons.

Marques Johnson battled injuries of his own after nine strong years, ultimately ending his career with a per-game scoring average of 20.1.

Jamaal Wilkes had better luck in the health department to finish his 12-year career with 14,644 points.

When all was said and done, this roster produced four top-three draft picks (across multiple years, obviously) and combined for 41,787 career points. Impressive, but nothing compared to our No. 1 team from five years earlier.

Record: 25-3 (National Champs)

Future Pros: John Havlicek, Jerry Lucas, Larry Siegfried, Joe Roberts, Mel Nowell, Bob Knight*

*Knight never played in the NBA, but, come on, it's Bob Knight!

Probably the most anonymous team in the top 10, Ohio State had an incredible three-year run more than half a century ago. From 1959-62, the Buckeyes went 78-6 and played in back-to-back-to-back national championship games.

Unfortunately, they lost the second and third of those title games to Cincinnati and did so just a few years before UCLA became the most dominant program ever, so this team has been glossed over many a time in the record books.

Not today, though, because it would have been impossible for us to miss this roster.

First, you've got John Havlicek. The 13-time NBA All-Star and eight-time NBA champion was named to 11 All-NBA teams (four firsts; seven seconds.) Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce might all pass him this season, but he currently ranks 13th on the all-time scoring list with 26,395 career points. And with career averages of 4.8 assists and 6.3 rebounds—hard to believe Bill Russell allowed any other Celtic to grab that many boards—he was much more than just a scorer.

There was also Jerry Lucas. Before even arriving in the NBA, Lucas already had a pair of AP Player of the Year awards to his name, but he went ahead and became an NBA Rookie of the Year and was named to five All-NBA teams (three firsts; two seconds.)

Lucas didn't play nearly as long as Havlicek, but he averaged 17.0 points and 15.6 rebounds per game over the course of 11 seasons that resulted in a Hall of Fame plaque next to Havlicek's.

Those two alone would have been enough for some serious consideration, but the entire starting five made it to the NBA. Larry Siegfried even averaged 10.8 points per game in his nine professional seasons.

Had they won those championship games in 1961 and 1962, the Buckeyes would be a much more popular choice for the top of the list of college basketball dynasties not coached by John Wooden.

Record: 29-1 (National Champs)

Future Pros: Lew Alcindor, Sidney Wicks, Lucius Allen*, Curtis Rowe, John Vallely, Lynn Shackelford, Steve Patterson

*Allen was suspended for the entire season for marijuana possession but was still taken with the No. 3 overall pick in the 1969 draft.

There's lots of room for debate on most of the rankings, but if you truly believe a different roster belongs at No. 1, it's time to re-examine how much of a homer you are.

Then Lew Alcindor, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar went on to become arguably the greatest player in NBA history. Six MVPs, 10 All-NBA first teams, five All-NBA second teams, 19 All-Star Game selections and the all-time leader in points scored with 38,387. The man played 20 years in the NBA and averaged 24.6 points and 11.2 rebounds per game. Enough said.

Sidney Wicks and Lucius Allen were also on this roster. Both went on to play 10 seasons in the NBA. Wicks averaged 16.8 points per game, while Allen put up 13.4 per night. As noted above, Allen was the No. 3 pick in 1969. Wicks went second in 1971. Alcindor was taken first overall in 1969.

The Bruins also had Curtis Rowe, who averaged 11.6 per game for eight seasons. Three others on the roster played at least one NBA season.

It is beyond ridiculous how much talent was on this roster. That they failed to go undefeated has to be one of the biggest surprises in college basketball history.

Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and Sports-Reference.com/CBB.

Kerry Miller covers college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @kerrancejames.