The chart below is a look at the average height of the 16 teams with player heights adjusted for playing time according to KenPom.com. No team in college basketball is taller than Kentucky with an adjusted average height of 79.3 inches. Wisconsin is a close second at 79.2 inches, nearly a full inch taller than the next tallest team, UCLA.
Kentucky is so tall, only one team in the NBA (Minnesota Timberwolves) is taller than the Wildcats, according to data collected by the New York Times.
At the other end, three teams are still alive in the tournament with average heights below the Division I average (76.7 inches), including Michigan State and Wichita State, both at 76.2 inches, or 3.1 inches shorter than Kentucky.
Kentucky Wildcats will face West Virginia Mountaineers on Thursday night with a 9:45 pm ET tip-off. Kentucky is 36-0, the first time to go unbeaten since the Indiana Hoosiers in 1975-6. Kentucky is a 13-point favorite over West Virginia according to SBNation.com.
Thursday night also sees No. 1 Wisconsin facing its toughest test of March Madness yet against No. 4 North Carolina. Speaking of height, this NCAA expert says that while still a shorter team than Wisconsin, “UNC has a team that is much more suited to match-up with Wisconsin’s height inside.”
This article was originally published in Business Insider. Copyright 2015.
