The greatest Sweet 16 there never was

The greatest NBA players to ever come out of their respective colleges face off in an imaginary Sweet 16 of epic proportions.

It’s a Saturday night and the Cleveland Cavaliers are playing the Oklahoma City Thunder during Primetime when Russell Westbrook is fouled and heads to the line for two. Mike Breen begins his spiel, “Russell Westbrook in his ninth season out of UCLA is averaging a triple double this season…he hits the first…and misses the second, Love with the rebound.”

At one point during the game, Love switches onto Westbrook and either Van Gundy or Mark Jackson remarks on how former teammates at UCLA are now sizing each other up. Now I’m thinking, “Huh…Kareem Abdul-Jabbar went to UCLA too didn’t he? What would happen if those three played together at the same time? What would the roster look like for powerhouses like Duke, Kentucky and Indiana?”

Sixteen teams made up of the twelve best NBA players that ever came out of that respective college, were ranked and placed in a Sweet 16 bracket in an attempt to answer that question.