List of NCAA Division I men's basketball players with 145 games played

In the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the statistic for total games played in Division I men's basketball helps opposing coaches to monitor the extent that a particular player is used on a team. By definition, a player has "played in a game" when he enters the contest via substitution or by starting the contest. All that is required is that he is one of the five players for a team on the court for a minimal time of one second according to the game clock.

In sports, it is typically the team's better players who get playing time in the most total games. To achieve this feat, generally several factors must all come together for it to even be possible:

1. The player must be very talented. Otherwise, it is unlikely he will have entered so many games throughout his career.
2. The team must be successful. To enter 145 or more games in a four-year period (with regular season and conference tournament games averaging about 30–32 games per season, leaving the need for an additional four to five games per season), the team must be good enough to qualify for a postseason tournament each of the player's four seasons at the school.
3. The team must advance through several rounds, at minimum, in each of the postseason tournaments for all four years. For example, a team making it to the NCAA Tournament's Final Four will have played in four or five additional games in order to reach that point, and will be guaranteed at least one more game in the Final Four itself.

David Lighty of Ohio State holds the record for the most all-time appearances with 157.^[1] His lead over the next highest player is partly due to a medical redshirt season in which he played 7 games. The player in second place, Jakob Gollon of Mercer, effectively had two medical redshirt seasons. Gollon suffered season-ending injuries in both his freshman season of 2008–09 and his redshirt freshman season of 2009–10, respectively playing two and nine games in those seasons. He was granted a rare sixth season of eligibility by the NCAA in 2013–14.

Currently, there are two ways in which a player can participate in more than four NCAA seasons:

• The first is to receive a "medical redshirt", officially known by the NCAA as a "hardship waiver". To be eligible, a player must have missed the large majority of a season due to injury or illness. Specifically, the player must have participated in less than one-third of his team's scheduled games in that season, and cannot have participated in any games in the second half of the season. Several players on this list have benefited from this rule.
• The second is to qualify as a so-called "graduate transfer". Current NCAA rules allow students who complete their bachelor's degree during their first four years of attendance at one school to play a fifth season at another school, provided they enroll in a degree program not offered at their previous school. No player on this list has yet benefited from this rule.

Only one player on this list competed for more than one school—Kyle Wiltjer, who played two seasons at Kentucky before finishing his college career at Gonzaga.

Key

Games played leaders

Danny Green appeared in 145 career games for North Carolina.

Footnotes

• The main reference for this article, published by Sports Reference LLC, lists a Terrell Allen, a 6'6" guard/forward from Upper Marlboro, Maryland who played at Central Connecticut and Drexel, as having played in 147 games. However, this listing is incorrect; it conflates two players with the same name and hometown, but different positions and heights. Central Connecticut's Allen played from 2010 to 2014. The Terrell Allen who played at Drexel in the 2015–16 season was listed in that season as a 6'2" freshman guard.^[46]

References

General

• "2013–14 NCAA Men's Basketball Records" (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association. 2013. Retrieved November 16, 2013. 
• "Career Leaders and Records for Games (since 1999 season)". sports-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. 2012. Retrieved May 6, 2012. 

Specific