Chris Holtmann's inaugural Buckeye basketball squad boasts an 8-3 mark through 11 games and more importantly a 2-0 record in Big Ten play but is doing so while committing 14.0 turnovers per night, good for just 198th in the country.
While the team is playing with improved spirit over that seen in the last few years (no matter what recent former players under Thad Matta might suggest), the reality is more disciplined play would have the Buckeyes sitting at 11-1 instead of 8-3 after Ohio State turned it over a combined 38 times in back-to-back losses against Butler and Clemson to round out the November portion of the schedule.
The good news here is that while many expected a rough season, the Buckeyes appear to be better than advertised and could take an even larger leap if the primary ball handlers can limit miscues leading to empty possessions.
| PLAYER | MINUTES | ASSISTS | ASSISTS/MIN | TURNOVERS | TURNOVERS/MIN | A/TO RATIO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C.J. JACKSON | 327 | 44 | .134 | 31 | .095 | 1.42 : 1 |
| A. DAKICH | 167 | 23 | .138 | 13 | .078 | 1.77 : 1 |
| J. TATE | 337 | 33 | .098 | 31 | .092 | 1.06 : 1 |
| TEAM | 2225 | 163 | .073 | 154 | .069 | 1.06 : 1 |
The 2017 season started, and recently resumed, with C.J. Jackson handling point guard duties and while he's shown an ability to make plays for himself (13.5 PPG) and others (4.0 APG), he's also displayed a penchant for turning the ball over in spurts (2.8 TPG).
Jackson has at least five turnovers in three of 11 games including seven against Butler and five against Clemson prompting Holtmann to go with Jae'Sean Tate at the point for a spell, forcing Jackson to come in off the bench for a couple games.
Tate had a decent two combined turnovers with Jackson coming off the bench in wins over Wisconsin and Michigan but the best-case for this year's squad calls for Jackson to improve his consistency at the point allowing Tate to play along the wings and baseline to better utilize his ability as a rebounder, defender and scorer in the paint.
Throw in the fact Jackson is shooting it surprisingly well from distance (43% 3FG) and the formula is a no-brainer.
We can't overlook the competition but it was a good sign last Saturday to see Jackson dish out six assists with no turnovers (and shoot 4/5 from deep) in 28 minutes in his return to the starting lineup against William & Mary.
Those numbers built off his combined six assists against three turnovers versus Wisconsin and Michigan, and while that 2:1 assist-to-turnover ratio isn't world-beating, it's not bad and surely better than his season-to-date mark of 1.42:1.
Reserve point guard Andrew Dakich sports the best ratio among the trio of main ball handlers at 1.77:1 and frankly looks much better than your average walk-on but again, the hope here for Holtmann is Jackson solidifies his play keeping point guard minutes for Tate, Dakich and Kam Williams to a minimum.
No matter who runs the point, the entire team has to cut down on those 14 turnovers a night if it wants to make some noise in a decidedly meh Big Ten conference.
| PLAYER | MINUTES | ASSISTS | ASSISTS/MIN | TURNOVERS | TURNOVERS/MIN | A/TO RATIO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| J. LYLE | 908 | 142 | .156 | 75 | .083 | 1.89 : 1 |
| C.J. JACKSON | 611 | 92 | .151 | 42 | .069 | 2.19 : 1 |
| K. WILLIAMS | 981 | 31 | .032 | 34 | .035 | 0.91 : 1 |
| TEAM | 6425 | 434 | .068 | 423 | .066 | 1.03 : 1 |
Last year's squad which finished at 17-15 overall – and missed the postseason entirely – ranked 199th in the land with 13.2 turnovers per game despite JaQuan Lyle and Jackson producing better assist-to-turnover ratio than any any of Ohio State's main ball handlers so far this season.
Obviously, there's more to winning games than ball security but for a 2017-18 Buckeye outfit seemingly playing with a pretty razor thin margin of error, not beating itself will be crucial in outpacing the predictions many had for this team entering the season.
