How Many 7 Footers Available?

by **Ace Dad** » January 5th, 2012, 12:17 pm

I had a conversation one day with an Assistant College coach about the availability of 7 footers who can play D1 college basketball. He asked me to guess the number of male 7 footers in America and I was off by 1000 percent.

How many male 7 footers, between the age of 16-22 in America?

How many male 7 footers are in the pool for recruiting most years?

Let see how close you get.

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by **Wufan** » January 5th, 2012, 12:46 pm

I just want to know the answer to this so I'll shovel a guess.

500 7 footers and about 100 can play ball good enough to get the attention of an assistant coach. That's only about 12 per recruiting class.

by **Jet915** » January 5th, 2012, 12:52 pm

Not sure but I know Creighton had the luxury of redshirting one this year (Groselle).

by **Wufan** » January 5th, 2012, 12:58 pm

Did a quick google...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/ ... /index.htm

"Fact: An actual accounting of 7-footers, domestic or global, does not exist in any reliable form. National surveys by the Center for Disease Control list no head count or percentile at that height. (Only 5% of adult American males are 6'3" or taller.) "In terms of the growth spectrum, 7 feet is simply extreme," explains endocrinologist Shlomo Melmed, dean of the medical faculty at L.A.'s Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. The term 7-footer is itself a kind of outer limit, a far-off threshold beyond which precise measurement seems superfluous. A 6'4" guard isn't a 6-footer, after all. The curve shaped by the CDC's available statistics, however, does allow one to estimate the number of American men between the ages of 20 and 40 who are 7 feet or taller: fewer than 70 in all. Which indicates, by further extrapolation, that while the probability of, say, an American between 6'6" and 6'8" being an NBA player today stands at a mere 0.07%, it's a staggering 17% for someone 7 feet or taller."

That would lead me to believe their are about 25 7-footers between 16 and 22, and since there are about 10 times more D-1 athletes than NBA athletes, 170% of them must be D-1 ready. I guess a lot of the D-I centers where platforms to their physical.

by **TylerDurden** » January 5th, 2012, 1:34 pm

Ace Dad wrote:I had a conversation one day with an Assistant College coach about the availability of 7 footers who can play D1 college basketball. He asked me to guess the number of male 7 footers in America and I was off by 1000 percent.

How many male 7 footers, between the age of 16-22 in America?

How many male 7 footers are in the pool for recruiting most years?

Let see how close you get.

In the recruiting pool, are we talking listed at 7-foot or actually 7-foot?

Listed: maybe 10-15

Actual: less than a handful, if that.

by **Wufan** » January 5th, 2012, 1:38 pm

TylerDurden wrote:
Ace Dad wrote:I had a conversation one day with an Assistant College coach about the availability of 7 footers who can play D1 college basketball. He asked me to guess the number of male 7 footers in America and I was off by 1000 percent.

How many male 7 footers, between the age of 16-22 in America?

How many male 7 footers are in the pool for recruiting most years?

Let see how close you get.

In the recruiting pool, are we talking listed at 7-foot or actually 7-foot?

Listed: maybe 10-15

Actual: less than a handful, if that.

If there are 15, then the Missouri Valley has had over 25% of them...Stutz, Orukpe, Egglesedder, and the Creighton kid in the last 8 years.

Ku and K-State currently have 3 more and Aldrich makes 4. That's 6 of the 15 just playing in Kansas!

by **Ace Dad** » January 5th, 2012, 1:57 pm

A former Valley coach did the research and tried to validate it several ways. Supposedly the answer is 70.

What I cannot tell you is if the 70 are in one year or spread over 3-4 recruiting years. Regardless, not as many as I thought. I figured there were many, many more 7 footers, but that most would not have the skill, conditioning, dexterity, and desire to play college basketball.

by **Wufan** » January 5th, 2012, 2:13 pm

Ace Dad wrote:A former Valley coach did the research and tried to validate it several ways. Supposedly the answer is 70.

What I cannot tell you is if the 70 are in one year or spread over 3-4 recruiting years. Regardless, not as many as I thought. I figured there were many, many more 7 footers, but that most would not have the skill, conditioning, dexterity, and desire to play college basketball.

Interesting...per the CDC info I quoted in the article above, there are 70 adult American males between 20 and 40.

by **MoValley John** » January 5th, 2012, 2:43 pm

Wufan wrote:
Interesting...per the CDC info I quoted in the article above, there are 70 adult American males between 20 and 40.

Are you sure that the CDC isn't reporting seven footers with Marfan Syndrome? I think a better report to determine quality seven footers would be a report identifying how many seven footers can walk and chew gum at the same time.

by **Ace Dad** » January 5th, 2012, 2:49 pm

Wufan wrote:
Ace Dad wrote:A former Valley coach did the research and tried to validate it several ways. Supposedly the answer is 70.

What I cannot tell you is if the 70 are in one year or spread over 3-4 recruiting years. Regardless, not as many as I thought. I figured there were many, many more 7 footers, but that most would not have the skill, conditioning, dexterity, and desire to play college basketball.

Interesting...per the CDC info I quoted in the article above, there are 70 adult American males between 20 and 40.

Your information is better than mine, because you went directly to the source. My information is based on a conversation with a coach about the dearth of 7 footers in college basketball. So, based on the CDC extrapolation of 70, many of these guys will not be in the "pool of eligibles" based on skill, conditioning, desire, etc, etc. Thanks.