Turning Over the Turnover Problem

I've started to dabble in looking at the possession-based statistics for both SDSU basketball teams and I'll share a few of the findings over the next week in preparation for the Summit League Tournament, starting March 3.

There have been a few trends that I have caught but the one I would like to focus on today is turnovers. Simply, both teams have vastly improved their ability to protect the ball since the beginning of the season. Feel free to attribute some of the season's second half success to playing Summit League teams but the Jacks have been consistently better.


The men's chart is on the left; women's on the right. (The first column is the number of scoring possessions or number of possessions that resulted in at least one point. The second is turnovers and third is turnover rate, which is the number of possessions that resulted in a turnover.)

 



The men have been better at taking care of the ball longer but they have made considerable progress in their ability to take care of the ball since Summit League play has started. To regularly be in the single-digits when it comes to turnovers is quite impressive. Of note, SDSU enters Thursday night's game against Western Illinois ranked 12th in turnovers per game, 17th in assist-turnover ratio and 38th in turnover margin nationally. It helps to have a top point guard who is an assist machine and appears to be allergic to turnovers at times in Nate Wolters. The standout performance is likely the one that everyone has pointed to this year when SDSU had five turnovers in their dominating win over Washington in December, with last week's pants-ing (courtesy of Travis Kriens) of NDSU not far behind.

I've long been critical of the way that the women's team turns the ball over, most notably the 38 turnovers last year ago at Middle Tennessee State. Even early in the season the squad had trouble taking care of the ball but things have changed. The Jackrabbits have still had issues against high-pressure teams like UMKC and Oral Roberts but for the most part, SDSU has improved its ball security. (With those two teams in the No. 2 and No. 3 seed slots for the Summit Tourney, that will be something to watch. SDSU has to take care of the ball against those teams.) Much like the rest of the Jacks' game, some of their best numbers in the turnover department have come against NDSU. More consistency at the point guard spot through Jill Young and Gabby Boever has helped the Jackrabbits decrease the one flaw in their otherwise solid game.

One more nugget: The SDSU women average 69.89 possessions a game for the season or 69.9 for short. That is the exact average number of possessions in a game for college basketball. For a team that likes to run, the numbers bear out that the Jackrabbits are pretty average when it comes to pace of play.