One Stat that is very Concerning | The Boneyard

One Stat that is very Concerning

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As I continue to watch this season and analyze where the Huskies are and what they are doing well and what they need to improve on, the one stat that I see continue to come up is turnovers. They are averaging around 14 turnovers per game (below 200th in the nation) & I understand that their pace is fast, but if they can improve on that I can see the Arizona type games become Wins with 3 or 4 extra possessions.

Vital is averaging amazingly over 3 turnovers a game, for a guy who doesn’t have the ball in his hands very often that is eye opening.

I believe the turnovers are not because of necessarily careless play, but more of over penetrating, I am guessing the coaching staff is already working on it with the guys. We’ve all identified Gilbert over penetrating into a turnover, but Vital & Adams have a had a good number of charges from the same thing.
 
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Tough to pick one stat. A turnover loses possession but a steal or rebound gains a possession. Mainly talking about Christian here. Less turnovers would be great though.
 
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As I continue to watch this season and analyze where the Huskies are and what they are doing well and what they need to improve on, the one stat that I see continue to come up is turnovers. They are averaging around 14 turnovers per game (below 200th in the nation) & I understand that their pace is fast, but if they can improve on that I can see the Arizona type games become Wins with 3 or 4 extra possessions.

Vital is averaging amazingly over 3 turnovers a game, for a guy who doesn’t have the ball in his hands very often that is eye opening.

I believe the turnovers are not because of necessarily careless play, but more of over penetrating, I am guessing the coaching staff is already working on it with the guys. We’ve all identified Gilbert over penetrating into a turnover, but Vital & Adams have a had a good number of charges from the same thing.
There was far too much dribbling from the guards in the Arizona game. Last night the passing was quick and frequent with great results. Completely different caliber of opponent but it clearly appeared like the over dribbling was addressed in practice and the ball wasn’t sticking last night. Hopefully that continues as the competition gets stiffer.
 

UconnU

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Most of our turnovers are happening on run outs, in transition. Hurley was working on a correction for this in the Lafayette game which was to have AG take the ball up on nearly every possession. Maybe slows our pace of play a little but helps with the turnovers. Playing extremely up tempo like we have been is a double edge sword helps you get high % looks in transition but can result in a lot of turnovers.
 
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I agree with EBonz here but will say if it changes Hurley and the staff will need to be commended on their ability. At the same time if the inconsistencies continue it’s not on them it’s on the players. Good news is we saw Alterique looking to be a PG first vs Lafayette the other night hardly looking to score but instead distribute without forcing. Also Jalen seemed more under control I am sure partially because they couldn’t guard him but hopefully also because of coaching after a less than positive game vs AZ..

If they can keep it 10 and under with their pace they should be fine. 5-6 would win a lot of games.
 
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I'm not sure you're looking at this the right way. It's not as bad as it looks on the surface. They play extremely fast (top 50 tempo in the country). That's going to lead to more possessions and innately more turnovers. They're turning it over on approximately 18% of their possessions which is good for 120th in the country. Good? No. But it's not debilitating.

Additionally, one positive about their turnovers is that the opponents aren't getting steals. I.e., they're not translating into fast break points. They're actually top 70 in the country in opponents steal %. Is it giving them extra possessions? Yeah, but it could be worse.
 
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I agree with EBonz here but will say if it changes Hurley and the staff will need to be commended on their ability. At the same time if the inconsistencies continue it’s not on them it’s on the players. Good news is we saw Alterique looking to be a PG first vs Lafayette the other night hardly looking to score but instead distribute without forcing. Also Jalen seemed more under control I am sure partially because they couldn’t guard him but hopefully also because of coaching after a less than positive game vs AZ..

If they can keep it 10 and under with their pace they should be fine. 5-6 would win a lot of games.

10 and under with their pace would be astounding. Really, Really good teams average 10 a game.
 
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Not the full story. As well as pace of play, how many turnovers do they force themselves and what is the TO forced vs the TO made ratio and how that rates nationally. Though I agree, there are some overly careless or sloppy play at times and AG does try to do too much sometimes.
 

gtcam

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Different styles bring different returns both good and bad but the area that bothers me most is the free throws. As has been asked in the past - do they practice this activity? It seems to be consistently bad this season.
 
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Our team is set up for a fast pace because we have a weak front court, and are better off pushing the ball than 1/2 court sets. We have to live with turnovers but try to reduce. We're not throwing the ball to Zion in the post. That said it burns me when Vital or other just throw the ball away with what's supposed to be a simple pass.
 
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But our scoring is way up......turnovers to baskets made this year vs last year, has to be much better
 
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But our scoring is way up.turnovers to baskets made this year vs last year, has to be much better

Yes, our offense is the best it's been in 3 years. We're still plagued a bit by the aforementioned turnovers, not getting to the line enough, and mediocre 3 point shooting.

The defense is actually worse than the offense at this point. Too many fouls, especially of good FT shooters (guards and skilled midmajor bigs), mediocre rebounding, not stifling enough on the interior.
 
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FYI: Just looked at our 9 game stats and made these observations.

Overall Shooting 49% vs 42.8% opponents (Jalen 56.9%!!, Cobb 67.5%, Carlton 62.2%)
3pt % Vital 41.3% Polley 41.2% Gilbert 40.5% Jalen 34.1% Team 35.6% Opponents 29.9%
Tyler Polley only 4 turnovers for the season so far!! (Cobb only 7 and Carlton 10)
(Guard Turnovers 28 Vital, 22 Adams, 17 Gilbert, 11 Smith) (Yakwe only 6 ??)

Foul Shooters that can be on the floor at the end in a tight game,
81.8% Vital, 77.3% Jalen, 77.8% Gilbert, 80% B.Adams (only 8-10), Carlton 75.9%
57.1% Polley, 58.3% Smith, but I think they are better than that as they take more.
69.6% Team vs opponents 73.1% and opponents have +30 attempts

14 blocks for Carlton, 11 for Polley, 1 for Cobb
Polley only has +6 more rebounds than Yakwe, obviously in much more time
Vital leads rebounds but everybody is contributing
 
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FYI: Just looked at our 9 game stats and made these observations.

Overall Shooting 49% vs 42.8% opponents (Jalen 56.9%!!, Cobb 67.5%, Carlton 62.2%)
3pt % Vital 41.3% Polley 41.2% Gilbert 40.5% Jalen 34.1% Team 35.6% Opponents 29.9%
Tyler Polley only 4 turnovers for the season so far!! (Cobb only 7 and Carlton 10)
(Guard Turnovers 28 Vital, 22 Adams, 17 Gilbert, 11 Smith) (Yakwe only 6 ??)

Foul Shooters that can be on the floor at the end in a tight game,
81.8% Vital, 77.3% Jalen, 77.8% Gilbert, 80% B.Adams (only 8-10), Carlton 75.9%
57.1% Polley, 58.3% Smith, but I think they are better than that as they take more.
69.6% Team vs opponents 73.1% and opponents have +30 attempts

14 blocks for Carlton, 11 for Polley, 1 for Cobb
Polley only has +6 more rebounds than Yakwe, obviously in much more time
Vital leads rebounds but everybody is contributing

If Tyler Polley can hit 3s and not turn the ball over, we will be in a very good place for 3 more years.
 
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FYI: Just looked at our 9 game stats and made these observations.

Overall Shooting 49% vs 42.8% opponents (Jalen 56.9%!!, Cobb 67.5%, Carlton 62.2%)
3pt % Vital 41.3% Polley 41.2% Gilbert 40.5% Jalen 34.1% Team 35.6% Opponents 29.9%
Tyler Polley only 4 turnovers for the season so far!! (Cobb only 7 and Carlton 10)
(Guard Turnovers 28 Vital, 22 Adams, 17 Gilbert, 11 Smith) (Yakwe only 6 ??)

Foul Shooters that can be on the floor at the end in a tight game,
81.8% Vital, 77.3% Jalen, 77.8% Gilbert, 80% B.Adams (only 8-10), Carlton 75.9%
57.1% Polley, 58.3% Smith, but I think they are better than that as they take more.
69.6% Team vs opponents 73.1% and opponents have +30 attempts

14 blocks for Carlton, 11 for Polley, 1 for Cobb
Polley only has +6 more rebounds than Yakwe, obviously in much more time
Vital leads rebounds but everybody is contributing
Yes, I have analyze all the stats and the one stat we definitely need to improve is turnovers. Vital is averaging over 3 turnovers a game, for a guy who is basically a shooter, that’s horrible. Our shooting, especially 3 point shooting has actually been good & our defense & rebounding has been okay. We get down to 10-12 turnovers a game we should win these close games.
 
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In our three toughest games we have had SU-20, IO-15, AZ-19. That's 18 per game.

In our six other contests we have had 67 TOs. That's 11.1 a game.
 
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The interesting things about our "problems" are that some are pretty easily correctible, and could have major implications on our quality as a basketball team later in the year.

1. I bet if you look at my posts like 80% of my recent posts are about Vital turning the ball over every time he tries to make a play off the dribble. Its a huge problem, but easy to solve. Tell him to stop dribbling and know his role. Take his 3(!!) per game out of the equation and we are closer to 10-12 a game which is actually very good.

2. We need to start trimming our rotation, and we can start with an easy one: we need to stop ever playing Yakwe. He might be the worst offensive player I've ever seen at UConn, and I just haven't seen the corresponding excellence on D or rebounding to justify giving him minutes. IMHO Whaley is just a more solid, more skilled, and just plain better version of Yakwe.

3. We already started to see this change in the last game, but Alterique needs to focus on controlling and facilitating the game and getting his scorers the ball in their spots. We have quality shooters: Vital, Jalen, Polley. We have great slashers: Jalen, Tarin, Polley(off pump fake). We have good finishers: Carlton, Cobb, Whaley. What we do not have is someone who can just control the ball and get it to the right spots. Loved his last game, think this really unlocks his potential.

These are relatively small changes, and all to be expected with a new coach getting to know a new roster. But these easy changes should have us turning the ball over less, being more efficient with our shots, and playing with more consistency. Exciting times ahead for this team.
 

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To me, this really reads like you're overblowing the issue, and overvaluing turnovers over TO Margin.

Of course we want fewer turnovers.

BUT...

We have lost the turnover battle only twice this year, and one of those times was to 'cuse, in a game we won.
Our TO average is actually 13.44
Our opponent's average is 15.66
We are in 93rd place in D1 in TO Margin, which puts us ahead of unbeatens, Gonzaga and Nevada. Our most recent opponent - Lafayette - has turned the ball over only 102 times, yet ranks 334th in TO Margin. And 17 of those 102 TOs were to us.

I'd be more worried about our FT shooting, our 3pt shooting percentage and even though our offensive rebounding is miles ahead of last year, it needs to be better yet.
 
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In our three toughest games we have had SU-20, IO-15, AZ-19. That's 18 per game.

In our six other contests we have had 67 TOs. That's 11.1 a game.
Exactly....
 
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Another 11 turnovers in the first half...

We are out shooting them and out rebounding them, but losing because turnovers again...

Hopefully we can fix in the 2nd half...
 
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This issue continues, another 17 turnovers last night. The Huskies are not talented enough to turn the ball over this often and defeat good teams, something has to give otherwise another 16-15 so, so season....
 
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Our starting frontcourt are not as skilled or can finish around the basket as the coaches would like so that limits us to a one dimensional jumpshot shooting team. Wilson and Cobb coming off the bench are really good, Josh is still learning, but is coming along.
 

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