College Basketball Programs Need New Rulers

It's always interesting to see just how wrong college athletics programs are when it comes to player measurements. Somehow, it's become quite a guessing game. One that usually isn't figured out until the player has left the program, and is getting sized up by pro teams. The latest round of clearing up some misinformation comes from the results of last week's NBA Pre-Draft Camp. Currently, Michael Beasley and Derrick Rose are regarded as the top two picks. And how did they stack up against their official college numbers?

Michael Beasley, listed as 6'10". Measured at 6'7" w/o shoes and 6'8-1/4" in shoes.

Derrick Rose, listed as 6'3". Measured at 6'1-1/2" w/o shoes and 6'2-1/2" in shoes.

I doubt that anyone really cares how tall these guys are without shoes, but that 1-3/4" discrepancy for Beasley is rather large. At least Rose was within 1/2" of his measurement.

So, is it that the athletic departments just don't care that much about the accuracy of the heights listed for the players? Or, do they think they're gaining some type of psychological edge by inflating the numbers? This isn't something new either, as we always hear about players not stacking up to what their college measurements had them listed as.