2008 Woodie Awards
Basketball: Turnovers a problem for Minutement
Jeffrey R. Larnard, Collegian Staff
Issue date: 12/3/08 Section: Sports
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While learning a new offense has contributed to the large number of turnovers for UMass (1-4), the turnovers has also hindered the learning process. The Minutemen have stumbled in their last four games, dropping all four despite holding leads at half time in three of them.
UMass will need to reduce their turnovers dramatically tonight at Toledo if it wants to end its four-game losing streak.
Through the Minutemen's first five games, they have averaged 19.4 turnovers per game. The entire team has been at fault, with not one player having more assists than turnovers. Point guard Chris Lowe leads the team with 29 turnovers, 5.8 per game, and had 10 turnovers in the 80-73 loss to Southern Illinois. The senior has 22 assists on the season.
Redshirt sophomore Anthony Gurley (15) is second on the team in turnovers followed by Ricky Harris (14), Tony Gaffney (13), and Gary Correia (8).
"We've all been playing basketball for awhile now," Harris said after the loss to Green Bay. "We know how to dribble and we know how to not travel with the basketball so a lot of our turnovers were careless mistakes."
The team's turnovers have had a negative effect on the Minutemen in more than one way in the early part of the season. The first is the opposition ability to capitalize on the Minutemen's mistakes.
UMass has turned the ball over 97 times, and those turnovers have been converted into 116 points by the opposition. The Minutemen's opposition has averaged 1.2 points off of each UMass turnover, and an average of 23.2 points per game off of them.
The same cannot be said for UMass. The Minutemen have caused 67 turnovers and has not converted them at the same rate. They have scored 59 points off of their oppositions mistakes, .88 points per turnover.
The turnovers are also effecting the implementation of UMass' new offense. With so many turnovers, the Minutemen have had trouble at times running their offense and finding out what works and what does not.
The dribble-drive offense is something that takes time to install, on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball. For UMass, the turnovers have slowed down the development of the offense and caused them to fall behind.
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