Trimming down the fouls to be critical for Jabari Walker in 2021-2022

By the end of Colorado's NCAA Tournament run last March, then-true freshman forward Jabari Walker had done much to generate a significant level of buzz around him as he entered the offseason and geared up for year two at CU.

After all, on the national stage, he absolutely shelled Georgetown in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, going 5-for-5 from beyond the arc and dropping a team-high 24 points.

Walker could hardly miss, hitting 9-of-10 attempted shots in total, and the Buffaloes cruised to a 96-73 victory.

If that wasn't enough, there was the three-game stretch earlier in the season as the Buffs got settled into Pac-12 league play that saw him break out as a collegiate player.

In a five-day span in January, Walker posted back-to-back double-doubles on the road at Utah (15 points, 10 boards) and at home vs. California (23 points, 11 rebounds), as he went on to score 11 points with eight rebounds in CU's next game against Stanford.

All in all, having averaged just over 14 minutes per game as a freshman, the Buffs' 6-foot-8 freshman phenom, whose only other Pac-12 offer besides the Buffaloes came from Cal, earned himself a spot on the Pac-12 All-Freshman Team.

That being said, Walker also displayed some areas in which improvement is required, despite his solid debut campaign with the Buffs.

First and foremost is cutting down on fouls.

Walker's struggles to stay out of foul trouble plagued him considerably in his freshman season, often coming in spurts and contributing directly to him seeing less minutes in a given game.

In a 81-45 blowout of Northern Colorado last December, Walker racked up four personal fouls and had four in the Buffs' next game, another lopsided victory, this time over Omaha, on Dec. 16.

As Colorado got underway with its conference slate, Walker managed to get whistled for four personal fouls in a nine-minute appearance against UCLA, a 65-62 loss for the Buffs, on Jan. 2 in Westwood.

When Oregon visited the CU Events Center Jan. 7, Walker again had four fouls, this time in 13 minutes on the floor.

Walker ended up missing six straight games towards the tail end of the regular season with an ankle injury and when he returned to action in a Feb. 25 game against USC, recorded four fouls in just eight minutes.

Needless to say, with Walker's minutes in 2021-2022 expected to rise considerably due to the Buffs' overall youth, him getting in foul trouble and as a consequence, having to sit on the bench for extended periods of time, will not be conducive to the team's overall success.

"I’ve spoken with him, but my big fear with him based on last year is foul trouble," Tad Boyle said. "He got in foul trouble and he played 14 minutes a game. If we want Jabari to play 25 to 30 minutes a game, he has to stay out of foul trouble to do that.”

No one seems to understand this more than Walker himself, who has pinned avoiding fouls as a major area he aims to be better in as the regular season draws closer.

"If I’m in foul trouble, I can’t be on the court," he said. "I feel like that’s the biggest thing that I’ve been working on, as well as developing different aspects of my game — not the skill aspect, but the defensive aspect, not fouling as much and showcasing my abilities on the court.”

Luckily for Walker, there is a near perfect teammate of his to get some pointers from in senior forward Evan Battey, who also struggled with staying out of fouls trouble as an underclassman.

Battey, as one of only two seniors the Buffaloes have this season, has taken a mentor role with a number of Colorado's younger players, namely freshman center Lawson Lovering.

As it turns out, he also has been able to coach Walker is how to steer clear of unnecessary fouls.

“(Battey) said that his freshman year he was like that as well," Walker said. "He’s been through it and has told me what he thought I should do and what helped him. It’s been great advice, just talking with and competing against him every day.""Even if I’m competing with him, he’ll stop and be like, ‘You should do this instead.’ That’s hard for a lot of people to do — to compete with someone and explain something at the same time. It’s huge.”

Ultimately, the extent to which Walker has taken steps in the right direction regarding his ability to stay out of foul trouble will not be known until Colorado starts playing real opponents.

“We’ll see — I don’t know if we’ll know the answer to that yet, until we get into games and you’ll see, can he stay out of foul trouble? Can he guard and be physical without fouling? That’s an art," Boyle said. "Evan had to figure it out and Evan’s a really smart player — Jabari’s going to have to figure it out...I don’t know if we know the answer to that with Jabari."