Analysis: Foul trouble irks M. Hoops

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- With five minutes left in the first half of the Penn men's basketball team's game against Auburn on Saturday, Quakers coach Fran Dunphy faced a dilemma. Penn freshman forward Ugonna Onyekwe had just picked up his second foul, and Dunphy did not want to keep him in the game and chance his picking up a third before the end of the half. So who would Dunphy put in to replace Onyekwe? As he looked down his bench, he undoubtedly got an instant headache. Starting forward Koko Archibong had two fouls. Ditto for starting center Geoff Owens -- and reserve center Oggie Kapetanovic as well. This was not the scenario that Dunphy would have ideally wanted when facing the No. 8 team in the nation. "It hurt us in terms of rotations," Dunphy said. "We needed to stay a little bit more out of foul trouble. We were in foul trouble just about the whole second half, and that did not help us." Faced with foul trouble throughout most of the first half and the game, the Quakers were forced into matchups they might not have otherwise wanted. And Penn's big men, fearful of picking up another foul, were tentative at times in the 77-70 loss. "I know that both of my [first-half] fouls were not fouls that I want to make in a game like this," Owens said. "They were just reaching-in fouls where I didn't move my feet and bailed in and just reached. "[Because of the fouls], the rest of the game, my defense was not going to be as effective." Auburn center Mamadou N'Diaye capitalized on the Quakers' early foul troubles to the tune of 12 points, five rebounds and three blocks --Ein the first half alone. More important than the effects that the fouls had on rotations and aggressive defensive play, however, are the free throws that they set up. Penn committed 28 fouls to only 17 for Auburn in the contest. Over the Quakers' last two games -- seven-point losses to both Auburn and La Salle -- Penn has committed 52 fouls to only 30 for its opponents. This has contributed to a statistically staggering free-throw differential between the opposition and the Quakers over these games -- a difference of 66-17. La Salle and Auburn scored 45 deadball, uncontested points from the free-throw line, while Penn has scored just 12 in the two games. Despite making more field goals than both opponents, Penn is 0-2 in these games, due in part to the foul situation. By the time Penn allowed the Tigers to reach the single bonus with nine minutes remaining in both halves on Saturday, the Quakers were at a distinct disadvantage. Down the stretch in both halves, while an Auburn foul on a scramble for a loose ball would result in Penn inbounding the ball, a Quakers foul in a similar situation sent a Tigers player to the line for two shots. Auburn did not make a basket in the final 3:35 of the game, relying on six free throws to finish their scoring. On the other side of the ball, however, the Tigers were feeling some of the Quakers' pain. Preseason All-American pick Chris Porter picked up his second foul with eight minutes left in the first half and saw only nine minutes in the opening frame. Amazingly, he scored no points in the game's first 20 minutes. And through a combination of a healthy dash of good interior defense and a pinch of foul trouble, Porter scored only four points -- 13 below his 1998-99 average -- in his 23 minutes in the game. Still, Porter went to the free-throw line six times -- just three fewer trips than the entire Quakers team. "We really don't look at Chris Porter as this team," Auburn coach Cliff Ellis said. "He's a part of this team. We don't go to one guy. We'll take what comes." What came was the astounding fact that Penn was able to limit the 1999 SEC Player of the Year to one basket on the evening. But Dunphy said that overplaying Porter and focusing all efforts on shutting down the senior was not his team's strategy heading into the game. It was clear that Porter's foul trouble influenced the scenario. But that was only one man out of the Tigers' offensive attack. Penn, however, faced the problem of having four of its five big men in foul trouble. Four Tigers starters played 29 or more minutes, including N'Diaye and forward Daymeon Fishback. No Penn player over 6'5" saw that much action on the court. Archibong picked up his third and fourth fouls in the first three minutes of the second half, and saw only 17 minutes on the court. Owens picked up his fourth with eight minutes left to play, and Onyekwe fouled out with two minutes remaining. Quakers reserve forward Josh Sanger, a defensive specialist with a limited offensive game, saw 10 minutes against the Tigers. This was more time than he'd seen against Kentucky, Penn State and La Salle combined, and Sanger had two of his shots blocked by N'Diaye on back-to-back attempts. With the 6'11" Owens in the game instead of the 6'8" Sanger, it may have been a different story. Owens, who scored 14 or more points in three of Penn's first four games, was held to a quiet nine points in 28 minutes. Like the other Penn big men, Owens spent the rest of the night on the bench in foul trouble, watching as the Tigers capitalized on Penn's foul trouble to pull out the close victory.

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