From The Couch – Turnovers And Turnovers And Turnovers, Oh My
The K-State’s men’s basketball team lost to Texas Tech 71 to 63 on Saturday night. The Wildcats have lost three of their last four games and are on a downward spiral from their number five national ranking of just a few weeks ago. The reason for these losses? Turnovers. K-State turned the ball over 23 times in the loss against Texas Tech. 23 times!? In the last four games, the Wildcats have turned the ball over 74 times, an average of 18.5 turnovers a game. This is unacceptable if you’re hoping to win games in the Big 12. Head coach Jerome Tang doesn’t seem to have any answers as to why this is happening…
“I’m very disappointed that we gave the ball away as many times as we did today. Obviously, they should get some credit for that, but most of it was we weren’t tough enough and they exposed us. We are going to be better for that on Tuesday.”…Jerome Tang, Texas Tech post-game, February 11, 2023
JM: I’d like to know what Tang plans to do “to be better” on Tuesday night against Oklahoma in Norman. This turnover problem is a trend that is getting worse. Point guard Markquis Nowell leads the Big 12 in turnovers with 89. Small forward Keyontae Johnson is second in the Big 12 in turnovers with 80. Third place in the Big 12 is Baylor’s Keyonte George with 72. Having the top two turnover machines in the league in your starting five isn’t ideal.
“I will have to go back and look at the film, but you can’t have live ball turnovers and expect to win games. We play the same style of defense, and we understand how they rotate. It’s just about being mentally and physically tough on delivering passes with two people on you. We work on it; we just didn’t get it done today.”…Jerome Tang, Texas Tech post-game, February 11, 2023
JM: “We work on it?” Pardon me is I’m skeptical of that. If you are practicing it, why isn’t it translating to games?
“They scored 28 points off 23 turnovers. That was the difference in the ballgame. And that had nothing to do with our defense that had a whole lot to do with our offense.”…Jerome Tang, Texas Tech post-game, February 11, 2023
JM: Watching Nowell and Johnson lackadaisically turn the ball over during these games is maddening to watch. I understand that you can’t bench your two best players, but something has to be done to fix this problem. Nothing Tang has tried thus far has worked. I think it’s time to sit them on the bench during games if they can’t or refuse to take care of the ball.
JM: Nowell is taking the blame, but what is he going to do to “be better?” I hope he takes it to heart and actually does something about it. It seems that the coaching staff doesn’t know how to solve this problem. If the turnovers persist tomorrow night against Oklahoma, I’m not very optimistic that this team will do much in the postseason.
K-State’s game against Oklahoma will be broadcast tomorrow night at 8:00 on ESPNU.