Tennessee guard Kevin Punter (0) guards against Santa Clara guard Brandon Clark (3). Tennessee won 64-57.KNOXVILLE - Tennessee's men's basketball team leads NCAA Division I in one major statistical category.
And it's a dubious one.
The Volunteers are committing the most fouls per game (26.2) through their first five games of the season, and they'll hope to hear fewer whistles when Kansas State visits Thompson-Boling Arena today as part of the SEC/Big 12 Challenge.
"It's hard to limit your fouls when you're trying to play as aggressive as we are, but we've just got to get better at it and continue to practice on keeping our hands away," freshman forward Jabari McGhee said before Thursday's practice.
"It's a fine line between being aggressive and being overaggressive, and we've really got to figure out what's that standard we can go, but we'll get it together, I'm sure."
Tennessee has had a player foul out of a game six times in five contests this season, and the season high for disqualifications in the program's history is only 24, a mark set in 1962 and equaled in 1977 and 1978.
Opponents are shooting nearly 30 free throws per game as the foul-prone Vols put them into the bonus early in halves, and Santa Clara, Kansas and Marquette combined for 86 free-throw attempts in three games against Tennessee last week at the Orlando Classic.
"We're obviously fouling at too high of a rate," first-year coach Donnie Tyndall said. "Our style of play lends to fouling a little bit, but also it's just eight newcomers trying to learn how to guard at this level. It's the hardest thing to do, is guard the dribble, and guys are hand-checking, and we're picking up a lot of fouls, in some cases 90 feet from the rim.
"We've tried to emphasize the importance of not fouling and showing our hands to the officials in hopes we don't get hand-checks or cheap fouls called, and I've got to tweak some things in regard into maybe we don't press quite as aggressively, especially early in each half."
This week in practice, Tyndall and his assistants started calling fouls in practice, which is quite the departure from the overly physical practices the Vols grew accustomed to under this new staff.
Tyndall said having his practices "be almost like a football practice" is by design, but calling fouls is something he's done "very seldom" in his career.
"I feel like that can help a little bit," senior guard Josh Richardson said. "I've been telling guys we can't play like we play in practice in the game, or we're all going to foul out, which has been happening. I feel like Coach Tyndall's done a good job kind of dialing it back in practice."
Tennessee's newcomers, particularly the post players, have been the most foul-prone. McGhee has fouled out of two games, and Memphis transfer Dominic Woodson has been whistled for 16 fouls in 48 minutes. McGhee and fellow freshman Willie Carmichael have 17 and 16 fouls, respectively, in 74 minutes each this season.
As for the guards, Kevin Punter fouled out of one game and picked up four fouls in two other games, and freshman Detrick Mostella (12 fouls in 80 minutes) and junior college transfer Devon Baulkman (seven in 37) also are contributing.
Richardson said the Vols have been telling each other during games to stop fouling to no avail.
"We just keep fouling," he said. "I just think it's little ticky-tack stuff that we shouldn't be doing, like if a guy gets a rebound, let him have it at that point and stop trying to run through and reach. We're small in the post, so we use our hands a lot trying to get around, but it'll get cleaned up."
The Vols have to find the line between being too aggressive and playing the style of pressure defense that is part of Tyndall's system.
"You get what you emphasize," Tyndall said, "and this week we're really emphasizing not fouling as much and showing your hands, and hopefully it'll carry over to the game on Saturday."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com