ESPN’s Jay Bilas tears down the angle that Ben Howland’s system “holds back” players in an Inside article. Because it’s insider, I won’t cut-and-paste more than a couple paragraphs, but here’s the gist of it:

“Excuse my French, but the perceptions about UCLA’s style are absolute crap. Howland has been a winner everywhere he has been, but especially at UCLA. He guided the Bruins to three straight Final Fours while placing numerous players in the NBA. While there is no argument that a team like North Carolina plays a different — and faster — style under Roy Williams than Howland does at UCLA, there is no empirical evidence that the style difference negatively affects the NBA future or draft status of Bruins players relative to Tar Heels players. In fact, the evidence suggests the opposite.”

And later…

“This preposterous urban myth about UCLA and Howland is just that, a myth. It is based upon a perception that Westbrook and Holiday are having better pro careers than they did college careers, and that the only “logical” explanation must be that Howland held his stars back. That is nonsense. The more likely explanation is that Howland is not kissing the tails of those believing themselves to be influential in the summer basketball culture, and they are spreading nonsense about Howland and his offensive philosophy.”