South Carolina’s Roster: A Statistical Anomaly in Women’s College Basketball
South Carolina’s 14-player roster doesn’t include a single athlete listed under 6 feet tall — a genuine rarity in the sport. The only player who would have fallen under that mark, former point guard Maddy McDaniel at 5-9, left the program in July, and even she wasn’t unusually short for her position.
The full height breakdown, per South Carolina’s official roster, shows: Tessa Johnson, Jordan Lee, and Jerzy Robinson at 6-0; Agot Makeer and Ayla McDowell at 6-1; Chloe Kitts, Justine Loubens, and Kaeli Wynn at 6-2; Kelsi Andrews, Joyce Edwards, Oliviyah Edwards, and Ashlyn Watkins at 6-3; Adhel Tac at 6-5; and Alicia Tournebize at 6-7 — averaging out to 6 feet, 2.3 inches across the roster. Historical records for the program are incomplete, but it appears South Carolina has never fielded a team entirely without a player under 6-0 before this season.
For context, last season’s tallest team nationally was TCU, averaging 6 feet, 2.5 inches — narrowly ahead of where South Carolina sits now. But TCU reached that number differently, relying on a top-heavy roster with three players at 6-7 and one at 6-8 to offset three players under 6-0. That average came with caveats, though: 6-7 Emily Hunter only played in seven games, and 6-8 Sarah Portlock didn’t play at all, meaning TCU’s height advantage wasn’t fully realized on the court.
By contrast, the nation’s single tallest player this season is Texas Tech’s Stephanie Okechukwu, a 7-1 Nigerian center who redshirted last season to acclimate to college basketball. Despite Okechukwu’s presence, Texas Tech’s team average sits at just 5 feet, 11.9 inches, since seven players under 6-0 more than cancel out her individual size.
One more wrinkle makes South Carolina’s numbers even more notable: while most programs round up listed heights by an inch or two, South Carolina has a reputation for doing the opposite. Several Gamecocks are listed shorter than their official FIBA-measured heights, including Robinson (two inches shorter), Makeer (one inch shorter), and Kitts (one inch shorter) — suggesting the team’s actual average height may be even taller than the roster indicates.
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