Illini’s Early-Season Turnover Problem Concerns Underwood
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Illinois head coach Brad Underwood logically assumed that a lack of turnover in his roster would result in a low number of turnovers on the playing court.
Through three games, Underwood now realizes his assumption was incorrect and his team has a problem that must get fixed quickly.
The Fighting Illini welcomed back eight of their top nine leading scorers from last season, 85 percent of the points, the third-highest percentage among teams from the six major conferences, and 82 percent of the minutes. This led Underwood and his staff to believe in the preseason his program finally had the continuity needed to take care of the basketball.
The 2019-20 college basketball regular season is eight days old and 148 Division 1 teams have played at least three games. Illinois has the fifth-most turnovers of all of those teams and the Illini’s 62 turnovers are the most turnovers of the 134 Division 1 teams which have played exactly three games.
An analytical statistic that attempts to eliminate pace of play as a variable in the number of turnovers a team’s offense produces is the turnover percentage. Logically, a team that plays faster and in transition more often will have a higher number of turnovers and is willing to accept that higher number because the back end of that equation is their hope at a higher number of easy baskets and fast-break opportunities. However, turnover percentage simply calculates a team’s percentage of committing a turnover per 100 possessions of play. Of the 351 Division 1 schools who have played a game against a fellow D-1 opponent, Illinois currently ranks 328th with a turnover percentage of 22.3. Granted three games is a very small sample size but Illinois’ current turnover percentage would’ve been the nation’s worst in Division 1 college basketball last season.
“We got to take care of the ball,” Illinois sophomore guard Ayo Dosunmu said when asked what the problem of this offense is following the 90-69 loss at Arizona Sunday. “We just got to tweak little details and we’ll be alright.”
After the loss at Arizona Sunday night, Underwood understood the diagnosis was the easy part but the solution may need some time to lower the turnover numbers.
“It was a 53-52 game and that weird bugaboo kept rearing its ugly head and that’s turnovers,” Underwood said after the game Sunday. “You get 53 field goal attempts and 22 turnovers. We gotta clean that up.”
The sad, cold reality of Underwood’s diagnosis Sunday night is Illinois (2-1) starts three players who could be considered high-level ball-handlers in Dosunmu, Trent Frazier and Andres Feliz. However, two members of that trio (Dosunmu and Feliz) lead the Illini in turnovers with 12 each and are the only two members on the roster with a double-digit figure in that statistical category.
“It doesn’t matter what offense we run, we’re finding ways to turn the ball over,” Underwood said. “(Arizona) doesn’t pressure. They let you run your stuff and it’s just a frustrating trend. We got to get better.”
Feliz had a team-high seven turnovers against Arizona and Dosunmu had five turnovers in the overtime win over Nicholls State in the season opener, which Underwood immediately said in the post-game media conference was “way too many”.
“There was a point in the second half against Arizona where we turned it over four straight times and with all three of us guards on the floor together, that’s unacceptable,” Frazier said Sunday.
The Illini will have had eight days of practice before taking the court again Monday night against Hawaii at 7 p.m. at State Farm Center in what will be Hawaii’s first road test of the 2019-20 season. The Warriors (2-1) have not forced a double-digit number of turnovers in each of its last two games.