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(TRIVIA QUESTION: Who is Virginia’s all-time leader in personal fouls ? Keep reading for the answer.)

As far as back as last summer, Virginia men’s basketball coach Dave Leitao said one of the biggest challenges facing his freshman big men was to learn to play without excessive fouling.

He certainly had that right.

Anybody watching the Virginia-Virginia Tech game this past Saturday could see the impact that 7-foot UVa freshman Assane Sene was having at the defensive end.

Sene played 15 minutes in the first half and had one personal foul. He didn’t pick up foul No. 2 until 15:56 remained, but then came foul No. 3 with 14:29 left, and Sene had to sit down.

Sene re-entered the game with 9:29 left, lasting until the 6:38 mark before getting No. 4. He immediately came out, re-entering with 4:11 left. He was on the floor for less than a minute before fouling out with 3:15 left.

It was only Sene’s second disqualification of the season, so I was surprised to do the math and find that he is averaging 7.27 fouls every 40 minutes.

That’s not going to cut it.

Research reveals that Travis Watson is the UVa career leader in personal fouls with 403. Also in the top five are Donald Hand (379), Steve Castellan (369), Ralph Sampson (369) and Marc Iavaroni (361).

Those were all good players, so maybe fouling is not such a bad thing. Some readers of this column may not be familiar with Castellan, but, when he finished his career in 1979, he was the all-time leading rebounder in school history (and still ranks No. 5). Plus, he played on the Cavaliers’ lone ACC championship team.

Another thing about the top five foulers: They all played a lot of minutes. Sampson played more than 4,000 minutes in his career, averaging 3.62 fouls every 40 minutes. That’s particularly commendable when compared to Watson 4.62, Castellan’s 4.91 and Iavaroni’s 4.41.

For a point guard like Hand to have averaged 4.16 fouls every 40 minutes, he must have been an egregious fouler, but I don’t remember him that way.

Many UVa followers of my generation, when asked to name some of the great foulers in school history, would mention Terry Gates off the peerless Cavalier teams in the early 1980s, but the numbers would suggest otherwise. Gates committed 235 fouls in 1,829 minutes, an average of 5.14 every 40 minutes.

Maybe there should be a minimum numbers of minutes played to qualify as the greatest UVa fouler, but here’s somebody to consider:

Craig McAndrew, an Australian post player on coach Jeff Jones’ last two teams in 1997-98, committed 48 fouls in 218 minutes (and also had the annoying habit of trying to rebound one-handed). McAndrew averaged a staggering 8.81 fouls per 40 minutes.

Who’s close to that? Chase Metheney, who played on two of the same teams as McAndrew, averaged 8.08 fouls per 40 minutes. Neither McAndrew nor Metheney, who had chronic injury problems, finished their eligibility.

Of more recent vintage, Ryan Pettinella averaged 7.92 fouls per 40 minutes in his two seasons at UVa (2006-2008).

We can only assume that Sene, with 32 fouls in 176 minutes, is going to learn how to cut down on his fouls. Athletically, there’s no comparison with Metheney, McAndrew or Pettinella.

But, we can only imagine what’s going to happen tonight, when North Carolina comes to John Paul Jones Arena and Tyler Hansbrough throws himself at Sene on every other possession.

“I think it’s a constant learning process as to his understanding,” coach Dave Leitao said. earlier this week. “I hate to be redundant, but it’s a work in progress. I think what happens with him [is related to] controlling his exuberance.

“He wants to be in the middle and make just about every play at both ends – block every shot, get every rebound – and sometimes his aggression works against him. A lot of that manifests itself in fouls.

“We’ve just got to be real careful as he learns and, the more time he is on the court, it’s obviously better for him and for us. In the long term, it helps him understand his surroundings so much more and so much better.

“My worry is just as much about his early foul trouble, picking one or two up early. If we can avoid that, sometimes I can gamble on him when he picks up his third foul [in the second half], but it’s hard to do right now.”

Plus, there's a feeling that young players that young players need to earn their spurs with the officials.

"That's a hard one," Leitao said. "I think there's some level of understanding that that's how it goes, [that] guys who have been around won't necessarily get a break from officials, but that officials know their game a whole lot more because they've seen them a number of times and know their idiosyncrasies and can manage the game around that.

"Young people seem to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and often don't get the benefit of the doubt. By and large, his fouls have been fouls. I don't think I've been complaining too much that he's been getting caught with fouls he doesn't deserve because of his youth.

"We're making up for lost time with a guy who's only been playing the game for a few years and [is learning] right before our eyes. "

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