Today’s Topic: When Will the Basketball Buckeyes Stop Turning It Over?
Spoiler alert: Not this year.
Most of you watched last night’s Ohio State basketball loss to Michigan, and those of you who did saw some absolutely terrible turnovers. It wasn’t the first time you have seen such turnovers and it isn’t going to be the last time.
It would be one thing if these turnovers came from an opposing defense that is stifling beyond all measures, but that’s not the case here. This is simply a poor-passing team that doesn’t always understand what to do with the basketball.
The Buckeyes turned the ball over 19 times Tuesday night against the Wolverines and the amazing thing is that point guard CJ Jackson only had one of them. This number could have been even larger if Jackson would have just had an average turnover night.
Things are made worse by players having to see extended minutes before they are ready. Because of the injury to Kyle Young and the transfer of Micah Potter, freshmen Jaedon LeDee and Justin Ahrens are playing more than they otherwise would have. Even though each player only had one turnover on the night, neither played more than 10 minutes.
Keyshawn Woods had four turnovers, negating CJ Jackson’s one. Musa Jallow and Luther Muhammad had three a piece, which is not what you want from your starting wings.
In Big Ten play, Ohio State leads the Big Ten with 13.9 turnovers per game, which is over four more per game than Michigan.
The Buckeyes have forced 110 turnovers this season, which is one fewer than they have committed.
When will it end?
As I said earlier, not this year.
There will be games where the turnovers are low, but that won’t mean things are fixed. The team responds to specific challenges from Chris Holtmann all the time, and the number of turnovers has been a focus at times this season. That focus is not indefinite, however.
Unfortunately for the Buckeyes, there are no fixes coming this season. The freshmen will get older and they’ll be much more prepared next season. Losing CJ Jackson and Keyshawn Woods will certainly put a dent in the experience department, but turnovers have gotten both players benched throughout their respective careers.
Maybe next year things will get better under incoming freshman DJ Carton and Florida State transfer CJ Walker.
Carton is the highest-ranked point guard recruit at Ohio State since Mike Conley. You can also count D’Angelo Russell if you want. The point is that Carton is very talented and needs to be a clear and concise answer for the Buckeyes next year.
Asking a freshman point guard to be the solution to a turnover issue, however, is generally a faulty plan of attack.
It won’t all be on Carton or Walker because whether you’re creating them or committing them, turnovers are a team effort.
The Buckeyes need to be more careful with the basketball right now, but since it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen, there’s no harm in worrying about it next year already.