“That's awful,” the junior forward from Saginaw said after the Spartans survived Indiana in overtime, 84-83, on Sunday night. “I've been getting in foul trouble way too much. Some of the fouls I've been getting, you can question them. But at the end of the day, I can't get myself in position to get those fouls, and I have to watch myself.”
Green took a double-double to the bench with 8:19 remaining in regulation, when he picked up his fourth foul.
The Spartans led 63-62 when Green sat.
By the time he returned, with 4:30 remaining in regulation, Indiana had taken a 73-67 lead, and memories resurfaced of Green, kneeling at the scorer's table, waiting to go into the game, while Michigan stuck three consecutive 3-point daggers in the first half of an upset win over MSU last week.
Green played the remainder of regulation, plus the entire overtime, without fouling out.
During that nine-minute, 30-second stretch, Green had five points -- the two overtime-forcing free throws, the first point of overtime, and the game-winning field goal -- along with three rebounds, two assists on 3-point baskets, and a steal.
Coach Tom Izzo, who said Green is “just such a versatile kid that he's smart enough to play with four fouls,” said after the game that he is considering using Green more at small forward to alleviate some rest and rotation issues.
Green said a return to small forward might help protect him from some interior defensive fouls.
“But at the same time, some of my fouls I got weren't because I was checking anybody,” he said. “One of them was because the ball on the ground and I'm reaching and stuff, just diving on the floor. Another one was stepping up and reaching. And a couple of them were dumb fouls that I can't have, because I'm not helping my team on the bench.”
Green fouled out once in the Spartans' first 16 games, against Texas. He had four-foul games three other times during that span.
He fouled out three times in the last five games -- against Northwestern, Illinois and Michigan -- and had four fouls against Purdue and Indiana.
“That's a great stat, because I didn't know that,” Green said. “I knew it was up there but I didn't know it was 23 out of 25. That's pretty bad.”