So, if Davion Mitchell was dropped into the 1939 national championship game at Northwestern's Patten Stadium, not only would his man-to-man defense overwhelm opposing ball-handlers and his 24-foot 2-pointers amaze onlookers - remember, this is well before the 3-point line - but he would also be as tall as many of the tallest forwards. I used Sports Reference as a starting point for players' positions and heights, and I also used school resources such as team media guides and record books, as well as historical newspaper archives from to try to get an accurate sense of how players' positions and heights were described in the moment. Based on an analysis of the starters from every national championship game in the history of the DI men's basketball tournament, starting with Oregon's win over Ohio State on Northwestern's campus in 1939, the average height of starters in the national title game has increased by roughly 3.5 inches.

What was the minimum height in the 2021 national championship game was once the norm, the average, the standard, when the sport's postseason was first established. The 2022 national championship game, however, saw the average height of the starters in the game climb above 78 inches, or 6-foot-6, for the first time since 2017. The shortest starter was Baylor guard Davion Mitchell, 6-2, the defensive dynamo whose play on that end of the floor swung the outcome in his team's win over Villanova in the Sweet 16 and whose 44.7 3-point percentage ranked 50th nationally, a combination that propelled him to being selected ninth overall in the 2021 NBA Draft. Seven of the game's 10 starters were between 6-2 and 6-5, and each team started three guards. 1 seeds Baylor and Gonzaga were a reflection of where the sport is and where it might be going. By modern standards, the starters in the national championship game in the 2021 NCAA men's basketball tournament between No.

Ohio state football roster 1942