Russell Westbrook and Kevin Love Getty Images
UCLA is no longer the dominant power in men’s college basketball that it was under coach John Wooden in the 1960s and ’70s, when the Bruins won 10 NCAA titles in 12 seasons. But there’s one thing the school is still best at: producing successful NBA players.
Between 1999 and 2009, 16 players from UCLA were selected in the NBA draft, with 14 of them going on to play more than 300 games, the highest number for any school in Division I, according to Stats LLC.
Besides All-Stars like Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook and Cleveland’s Kevin Love, UCLA alumni that remain key NBA contributors include Jrue Holiday (New Orleans), Matt Barnes (Los Angeles Clippers), Darren Collison (Sacramento) and Trevor Ariza (Houston).
Over this same span, 17 players from Duke were drafted, but only 12 Blue Devils played more than 300 games.
The school with the second-highest NBA success rate is Kentucky, with six of the seven players taken between 1999 and 2009 playing at least 300 games. This doesn’t include recent Wildcats, such as DeMarcus Cousins and John Wall, who will likely hit the mark this season.
Coincidentally, Kentucky coach John Calipari was at Memphis from 2000 to 2009 and had nine players drafted during this span. Only one player, Tyreke Evans, has hit the 300-game mark. Derrick Rose, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2008 draft, remains seven games shy of 300, having missed a majority of the past three seasons due to injury.