Dario Hunt has no explanation as to why foul trouble always seems to find him.
"I really don't know," the Nevada Wolf Pack sophomore said this week. "All I can do is just keep playing."
That is precisely the problem for the 6-foot-8, 230-pound center. Foul trouble -- he leads the team with 67 infractions this year -- is keeping him off the court.
A perfect example of that was the Pack's recently-completed two-game road trip to Boise State on Jan. 20 and Fresno State on Jan. 23. Foul trouble (four in each game) limited Hunt to just 39 minutes combined in the two games.
"When Dario is on the floor our team is totally different," coach David Carter said this week as he prepared his Wolf Pack (12-8, 4-3) to face Hawaii (9-12, 2-6) Saturday night (7:05 p.m.) at Lawlor Events Center in a Western Athletic Conference game.
The Wolf Pack clearly needs the athletic Hunt on the floor. When Hunt is out with foul trouble (like the final 17:33 of the first half against Fresno), the Pack can't match up with more athletic, active big men. Freshman Greg Smith torched the Pack for 25 points (nine in the final 17:33 of the first half with Hunt on the bench) in Fresno's 87-77 victory.
"When he's out, it changes our team," Carter said.
Nobody feels worse about it than Hunt.
"It's very frustrating," said Hunt, who averages the fewest minutes (26.5) of any Pack starter. "Sitting on the bench and not being able to go out there is hard, especially when you have to sit the entire first half. But there's not much I can do about it."
"It is tough for a young man like that to sit out," Carter said.
Hunt picked up his first foul against Fresno just 15 seconds into the game. "He was out of position," Carter said. "That's usually what happens when he gets into trouble. He's out of position and then he has to react late to the ball."
Hunt, who has fouled out of a team-high three games this year and has picked up four fouls eight other times, has averaged one foul every 7.9 minutes. Last year as a freshman he averaged one foul every 5.6 minutes.
So there has been some improvement.
"He had been playing much smarter and consistently lately," Carter said.
The closer the game and tougher the opponent, the more Hunt seems to foul. In blowout victories over Montana State, Fresno Pacific, South Dakota State and Wagner, Hunt averaged just 1.5 fouls a game, never picking up more than two. In the Pack's other 16 games, he has averaged 3.8, picking up three or more 15 times.
Hunt's foul problems also always seem to appear on the road. In 10 games away from Lawlor Events Center, Hunt has picked up 42 fouls and has fouled out three times. In 10 games at home, he's been called for just 25 fouls and has not fouled out.
At UNLV, he was called for two fouls in a span of 91 seconds and had to sit out most of the first half. He picked up his fourth and fifth fouls in a mere two seconds at Louisiana Tech. He was limited to just 15 minutes at Pacific, after picking up his first two fouls in the first 10:25 and his second two in the first 13 minutes of the second half. He fouled out at North Carolina, UNLV and Louisiana Tech.
The Pack lost all those games. That is probably not a coincidence
"Dario does a lot of things that don't show up in the boxscore," Pack sophomore Luke Babbitt said. "Just his presence alone does so much for us. We miss him when he's not out there. I know I miss him because when he's on the floor I don't have to bang inside with the big guys as much."
Carter said Hunt's biggest strength -- his ability to block shots -- might also be his biggest weakness when it comes to avoiding foul trouble. Hunt led the WAC last year with 67 blocks and is second this year with 40.
"He sometimes gets too aggressive and tries to block every shot," Carter said. "This is not baseball. You can't shut anybody out. Sometimes you just have to get your hands up and let your man shoot the ball. You can't block every shot."
Hunt has blocked at least one shot (he had zero at Fresno) in 18 of the Pack's 20 games this year. In the 11 games when he has been called for at least four fouls, he has averaged 1.5 blocks a game. In the other nine games, he has averaged 2.6.
That, too, is likely not a coincidence.
Hunt, though, says he doesn't play any differently when he is in foul trouble.
"I wouldn't say I was any less aggressive (at Fresno), " he said. "I still crashed the boards (six rebounds in 20 minutes). I have to stay aggressive the whole game."
Carter, though, admits there is a time and place for everything.
"He needs to pick his spots better," said Carter, referring to his young center's fondness for blocking shots. He is still learning when to be aggressive and when not to be."
