KU Enforcers

Mitch Lighfoot clearly plays basketball with abandon. He is 100% all the time. That makes him a fan favorite but also can get him into foul trouble. He fouled once every 6.5 minutes of playing time in his career. For players averaging more than 10 minutes per game, that ranks 13th all-time. So who is the biggest KU enforcer? If you limit to 10 minutes per game, that would be Tarik Black who played only a single season and in that season fouled once every 4.9 minutes. If you limit to 15 minutes per game then Roger Morningstar at once every 5.2 minutes climbs to the top. Obviously the top of the list is mostly all big men like Morningstar (5.2), David Padgett (5., Jeff Graves (6.0), Ben Davis (6.3), Brian Martin (6.4), Richard Scott (6.6) and Joel Embiid (6.9). Those are followed by Norm Cook, Ken Koenigs, Mike Maddox, Markeiff Morris, Landen Lucas, Sasha Kaun, Paul MOkeski, Donnie von Moore, Darrell Arthur, Eric Pauley, Greg Ostertag and Eric Chenowith, Art Housey, Scot Pollard, Greg Drieling, BJ Williams, TJ Pugh and Udoka Azubuike. In fact, of the 122 players averaging more than 15 minutes per game for a career the top 4 are big men. The first backcourt player on the list is one of the most agressive players to play at Kansas and one of the best. Darnell Valentine fouled once every 9.4 minutes played to lead all backcourt players.

Ricky Ross was the guy who managed to stay out of foul trouble. He fouled only once every 21.7 minutes. Brandon Rush was right there with him at once every 21.6 minutes. If you want the big guy with the least propensity to foul, that would be Perry Ellis at once every 13.4 minutes.

Let's hope Jalen Wilson's brief stint was an anomaly. In a little less than 3 minutes he had 2 fouls which would be a foul every 1.4 minutes or about 7 minutes before he fouls out. But that is nothing compared to Tommie Smith who played 397 minutes in 70 games in 1973-75. He fouled once every 2.2 minutes. That was the era of aggressive play since Danny Knight who played the same time averaged a foul every 2.3 minutes in 444 minutes and 75 games.

All-time, KU has averaged 18.93 fouls per game. From 1971-80 that was 21.44. Last season was the 2nd lowest on record at 14.65. In fact, since 2015 KU has averaged only 16.91 fouls per game. That is quite low. One measure of defensive effectiveness in the ration steals per foul. In 2003 we had 0.59 stl/f. That is excellent. In 1997, maybe our best team we had 0.52 steals per foul. In 2020 it was also 0.52. Oddly, or maybe not oddly, this esoteric stat correlates with win % as well as any stat. Of the 7 best years of that stat, 6 were final four seasons. Pretty interesting huh?

I had not really considered that before but steals per foul does make sense for defensive effectiveness.