Not every great college basketball player is going to make it as a pro, but some just have further to fall than others.

Some players who were legends on the college court just couldn't seem to translate that success in the NBA. In other words, they were flops.

It's subjective, this thing we call an NBA flop. But, really, it all boils down to one thing: expectations. This is the ruler by which all athletes are judged, regardless of whether they're professionals or amateurs.

In this article, we aren't going to focus on simple NBA underachievers, those players who didn't live up to their expectations coming out of college, but still had respectable NBA careers, like Danny Manning or Danny Ferry.

Instead, let's look at five flops: NCAA superstars who not only didn't live up to expectations, but also wreaked havoc on the teams that drafted them ...

No. 5: Christian Laettner

Christian Laettner could serve as the poster-boy for the didn't-live-up-to-expectations players.

When the Minnesota Timberwolves drafted him third overall in 1992, they thought they were drafting the Laettner who beat out Jim Jackson and, believe it or not, Shaquille O'Neal to gain a spot on the gold-medal-winning U.S. men's Olympic basketball team, considered by many to be the best team ever assembled in any sport.

The T-Wolves wanted the Laettner whose No. 32 jersey was retired by Duke, after he averaged 16.6 points and 7.7 rebounds per game and led the Blue Devils to four consecutive NCAA tournaments, finishing as champions in 1991 and 1992.

Instead, they got the Laettner who played pretty well his rookie season, averaging 18.2 points per game, but that was about it. The T-Wolves hoped he would only get better, but he went from the penthouse to the outhouse about as fast as Milli Vanilli.

No. 4: Steve Alford

The young Steve Alford was the quintessential hometown hero: he earned the coveted Mr. Basketball title for the state of Indiana in his senior year; averaged 18.5 points per game during his career at Indiana University, earning first-team All-American honors in both his junior and senior years; grabbed a gold medal in the 1984 Olympics; and led the Hoosiers to a national title in 1987.

So it's understandable that Indiana Pacers' fans would be livid with the squad after selecting Reggie Miller with the 11th overall pick in 1987's draft instead of golden boy Alford. But, as much as we fans love to gripe about management, they happened to make the right move this time.

Alford, after going 26th overall to the Dallas Mavericks, only played four seasons in the NBA, averaging a measly 4.4 points per game.

Alford has since followed his father's footsteps, with successful coaching stints at Southwest Missouri State, Iowa and New Mexico, but that doesn't change the fact he flopped in the NBA.

No. 3: Pervis Ellison

Although we're ranking "Never Nervous" Pervis Ellison No. 3 on our flops list, we would rank him near the very top if we had a Best Nicknames Ever list.