Men's basketball looks to cut turnovers

Verdell Jones is expected to lead by example this season.

With the current year just two games old, the junior guard is doing his job — in good, and sometimes, bad ways.

The good comes with his 17 points per game, which ranks him second on the team, and a team-high four steals.

The bad comes with a team-high 11 turnovers, contrasted by only four assists.

“That’s been a huge problem for me and the team the last few years,” Jones said of the turnovers. “If we want to win games against big time teams, we’ll have to cut those down.”

Fortunately for the Hoosiers, a high volume of turnovers hasn’t stopped them from winning so far. In each game, IU has turned the ball over more than it has forced its opponent to do so, leading to an average of 22.5 turnovers per game and a minus-5.50 turnover margin.

But IU coach Tom Crean said the numbers will have to change if the victorious ways are going to continue when IU (2-0) plays Mississippi Valley State (0-1) at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Assembly Hall.

“Our turnovers have got to get better,” he said after Friday’s 88-60 victory against Florida Gulf Coast. “The good or bad news, whatever way you look at it, we’re still committing too many unforced turnovers. Some of that was because we haven’t had our lineups together as much because of injury, and some of that is we’ve just got to bear down, concentrate better and be a little bit more assertive, especially with our driving, and do a little bit better job with our feet.”

On a positive side, the Hoosiers are doing more with the takeaways than the competition. IU has outscored its opponents on points off turnovers 45-22 this season, adding a combined 22 fast break points.

With their next game, the Hoosiers are expecting a similar battle. The Delta Devils nearly pulled an upset to open the season Friday, falling 72-70 to host Georgia.

Guard D’Angelo Jackson led the way with 16 points on 5-of-9 shooting. But the Delta Devils also committed 18 turnovers while forcing Georgia into 15.

Crean said IU’s problems, at least in Sunday’s 67-44 victory against Wright State, stem from floor recognition. He said Wright State took away the area just off the foul line, forcing his players into making bad decisions with the ball.

“If you take away the elbow and you have Jordan Hulls in the corner, well, pick your poison,” Crean said. “So, if they take it away, let’s throw it to Jordan. There were times we were really trying to get to the basket and we missed open guys. That’s stuff that we can teach them off of film and be better with.”