How tall

[sybarite]

The average American woman is 63.5 inches (some reports suggest that is now 63.8) with a standard deviation of 2.5 inches. That means that two-thirds of all women are between 61.3 and 66.3 inches.

Men tend to be 70 inches with a SD of 3.0. What does this mean?

http://investing.calsci.com/statistics.html

If we look at 100,000,000 men, we would find that only 3,200 of them fall within the 4 SD range of 6-10 to 7-1. Only 28 would fall between 7-1 to 7-4.

With women, only 3,200 women would fall into the 4 SD range of 74.8 to 76.3 inches. Only 28 would fall into the 76.3 to 78.8 height range.

Let's see how this compares:

Men: 3,200 are 6-10 to 7-1
Women: 3,200 would be 6-2.8 to 6-4.3

Most of the centers in basketball would fall into this range. Few men are over 7-1, and the same percentages of women would be over 6-4.3.

Men: 28 are 7-1 to 7.4
Women: 28 would be 6-4.3 to 6-6.8.

There just aren't many Griners out there, over 6-6.8 inches.

We happen to have one player who is 6-6 which falls into the tallest range that you are likely to find women. The chances of getting players over about 6-3 would seem rather rare. Most male teams have centers in the 4 SD range. Their forwards tend to be in the 3 SD range. For women, that would be just slightly under 6-2.

 

[annabelle]

thanks for pointing out the fact that there aren't that many 6'8" women. duh

 

[SoonerNorm]

It is pretty common to see really tall players who are not very good athletes. I would rather have a 6'3" Tina Charles than a 6'6" girl who isn't very athletic. But, in very recent years we have seen more and more women's players who are 6'5" and taller who are very athletic...Griner, Delle Donne, Candace Parker, etc.

I agree those type players are not common but all you need is just one. Looking at a list of recruits there are some great ones in the next couple of classes.

 

[BanjoCharley]

Not to nit pick but Candace Parker is listed at 6'4"

 

[AustinTXSooner]

Not to nit pick even further, but most listed heights are with their basketball shoes on.

 

[Oliver Hardy]

Is this a tangent of the old 6 inches is really a foot arguement?

 

[35TangoTango]

Not to nit pick even further, but most listed heights are with their basketball shoes on.

And standing on a phone book - sometimes the Norman book, sometimes the Oklahoma City.