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Turning around turnovers is a major concern for West Virginia basketball

The West Virginia Mountaineers basketball team has averaged 18 turnovers per game over the last four contests.
The West Virginia Mountaineers basketball team has averaged 18 turnovers per game over the last four contests.

Turnovers are becoming the primary issue.

And no, we’re not talking pastries.

“I’m kind of getting used to seeing us throw it away,” head coach Bob Huggins said.

It’s true. Turnovers have been a problem for West Virginia and that was magnified with a lack of being able to generate stops on the defensive end at Kansas State in a shocking 84-68 loss. The Wildcats had yet to win a game in the league but was able to capitalize scoring 28 points off 18 West Virginia miscues.

A total of six different players had at least two turnovers against Kansas State, with half of those recording three. For much of the game, the Mountaineers had collectively more turnovers than made baskets which is obviously not a recipe for success.

The Mountaineers have averaged 18 per game over the past four and rank near the bottom of college basketball turning it over on 21.7-percent of their possessions.

Perhaps even more alarming is that live ball turnovers is at 11-percent leading to easy opportunities for baskets on the other end of the floor.

“We turn it over 18 times again. We’re not going to win,” Huggins said. “But they’ve been told that and told that and told that and told that. It was so bad yesterday, I said if you throw it away you’re going to run. We ran yesterday.”

The mistakes have proven costly and it’s an issue that is magnified if the Mountaineers aren’t able to rely on a smothering brand of half-court defense. That was the case against the Wildcats, when West Virginia wasn’t able to stop drives to the basket, did not make effective rotations or force shooters into difficult spots and contest those opportunities when they did shoot the ball.

For the season, West Virginia is right at 15.4 turnovers per game putting them near the bottom of the barrel in college basketball and it’s not hard to see how that could become a real problem as the schedule moves forward.

For a team that has struggled to put the ball in the basket at times, giving opponents easy cracks at scoring opportunities or numbers is not a recipe for success. Passing the ball has been problematic for this team all season at seemingly all levels even basic entry attempts.

Ball security is the utmost concern if this team wants to generate any sort of run for a possible conference championship or even more in the NCAA tournament. It’s an issue that can be corrected, but at this stage of the season it’s fair to wonder how much?

Addressing this concern will be at the top of the list for the Mountaineers moving forward and self-inflicted wounds must be corrected.

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