Here is a chart of Lard's playing time by game last season...
View attachment 55368
His era of limited minutes was early in the season. That eventually went away. I would imagine those had to do with (1.) still in the doghouse for whatever left him suspended the first two games, (2.) maybe not quite in peak playing shape yet, (3.) the foul problems, and (4.) had not quite earned his permanent starting spot over the senior in Beverly quite yet.
However, come the early part of conference season (when Young was still healthy and, therefore, Lard was not terrified to foul like he was at the end of the season when he had to play 35+ per night by necessity AND not foul out), he was playing 30+ minutes every game and managing to not foul himself out of the contest. He seemed to have learned his lesson.
From the home KSU game through the home KU game (the last one where NWB played and our lineups started getting weird because of injuries), he averaged 29.6 minutes per game. I do not see why he could not do the same next year with some better coaching, conditioning, and more experience defending at this level. At least, I hope he should be able to do it.
He is
clearly one of our best four guys heading into next year with Wigginton, NWB, and Shayok. Your best four should play 30+ per night (if not more than that).