For such a long time this season, the Cincinnati Bearcats were very sloppy with the basketball. That time was the first month of the season. Everyone points to the Wright State game as the time that the Bearcats stopped turning the ball over and therefore became very highly efficient on offense, but that’s not really the case. The Bearcats put the clamps on thing with the Chicago St game. They turned it over 13% of the time. That started an extraordinary string of low turnover games:
- 12.1% vs OU
- 13.1% @ Pitt
- 13.6% vs ND
- 7.7% vs St John’s
- 15.3% @ Georgetown (Would have been the 2nd lowest of the season until these games)
- 4.2% vs Nova
- 10% @ UConn
- 12.5% @ WVU
The Bearcats had an offensive efficiency over 102 in all of those games but 2. They just couldn’t make shots against Oklahoma or St John’s, by far their worst 2 shooting performances of the season.
That brings us to the last 5. Cincinnati has done this
- 18.6% vs Syra
- 23% @ Rutgers
- 14.1% vs DePaul
- 23.9% @ St John’s
- 19.7% @ Marquette
The turnover sunk Cincinnati right off the bat. Their efficiency dropped to 89.8 and 88.5 and the Bearcats lost the first 2 games. The Bearcats have played a lot faster against DePaul, St John’s and Marquette. There were 71, 67 and 71 possessions in those games. That’s the second fastest stretch of the season behind 74, 73, 69 against Radford, Pine Bluff and Chicago St.
The goal of this post is to break down what exactly is happening that’s causing UC to turn the ball over so much more. There is no video of the St John’s game so that will ruin things a little bit, but we have play by play for that. Let’s get to it.
Here’s what will be tracked and how it will look
Player- NAME.
Situation – WHAT.
Time – WHEN.
Result – RESULT
Syracuse
1) Player- Dixon.
Situation – Threw away the inbound pass.
Time – 14:59 -1.
Result – 2 points
2) Player- Mbodj.
Situation – Offensive foul.
Time – 13:24.
Result – 2 points
3) Player- Guyn.
Situation – Stripped on a drive.
Time – WHEN.
Result – 2 points
4) Player- Davis.
Situation – Drove in the lane, surrounded by 4 people with no one to pass to, threw it away.
Time – 8:18.
Result – 2 points
5) Player- Wright.
Situation – Stepped out of bounds on a break.
Time – 7:22.
Result – Miss
6) Player- Jackson.
Situation – Fired a pass 700 mph past an open Dixon under the basket.
Time – 6:25.
Result – Miss
7) Player- Wright
Situation – Stripped by Triche on a drive.
Time – 4:56.
Result – 2 points
8) Player- Guyn.
Situation – Bad entry pass.
Time – 2:40.
Result – Miss
9) Player- Gates.
Situation – Pass too high for Dixon, right through his hands.
Time – 0:10.
Result – 2 points
10) Player- Jackson.
Situation – Tried to pass out, Triche read it and deflected.
Time – 8:08 -2.
Result – 2 points
11) Player- Jackson.
Situation – Got a steal, had it knocked out of his hands and out of bounds. It goes as a steal because I don’t know how else to classify.
Time – 1:20.
Result – Miss
Rutgers
1) Player- Dixon.
Situation – High pass to Gates.
Time – 19:29.
Result – Turnover
2) Player- Parker.
Situation – Charge.
Time – 13:19.
Result – Turnover
3) Player- Wright.
Situation – Drove, stopped, didn’t have a shot or a pass option, jumped for some reason and threw it away.
Time – 4:23.
Result – 2 points
4) Player- Kilpatrick.
Situation – Overthrow on an outlet pass on a break.
Time – 3:03.
Result – 2 points
5) Player- Sanders.
Situation – Weird dribble went right to Rutgers.
Time – 0:20.
Result – 2 points
Player- Dixon.
Situation – Drove, had no shot, tried to throw it back out.
Time – 16:10 -2.
Result – 2 points
7) Player- Wright.
Situation – Pocket picked at the top of the key.
Time – 15:32
Result – 2 points
8) Player- Guyn.
Situation – Charge.
Time – 13:31.
Result – Guyn got a steal
9) Player- Guyn.
Situation – After his steal, Guyn got in the paint, tried a spin move and had it ripped.
Time – 13:10.
Result – 3 points
10) Player- Kilpatrick.
Situation – Travel.
Time – 10:01.
Result – Miss
11) Player- Parker.
Situation – Charge (it was a block).
Time – 9:27.
Result – 1 point
12) Player- Jackson.
Situation – Charge.
Time – 8:27.
Result – Miss
13) Player- Parker.
Situation – Did the thing where he was instinctively throwing a pass to Cash on the wing, only Cash’s man was standing in front of him and Parker did the ‘holy shit’ move where he tried to stop throwing it.
Time – 6:12.
Result – 2 points
14) Player- Jackson.
Situation – Just a lazy pass from the elbow to the block.
Time – 4:53.
Result – 3 points
DePaul
1) Player- Parker.
Situation – Got a steal, threw a terrible outlet pass.
Time – 17:50 -1.
Result – DePaul traveled
2) Player- Parker.
Situation – Travel.
Time – 16:01.
Result – Turnover
3) Player- Gates.
Situation – Gates got the ball at the foul line, started to drive and had it poked way.
Time – 9:59.
Result – 2 points
4) Player- Dixon.
Situation – Brought the ball up and made a lazy pass.
Time – 9:49.
Result – Miss
5) Player- Davis.
Situation – Stripped in the lane.
Time – 7:25.
Result – 2 points
6) Player- Kilpatrick.
Situation – Went up for a shot and lost the ball on the way up out of bounds.
Time – 6:34.
Result – 2 points
7) Player- Gates.
Situation – Gates was leading the break and threw a pass 5 feet in front of Cash.
Time – 15:59 – 2.
Result – Turnover
8) Player- Dixon.
Situation – Lazy pass deflected and stolen for a dunk.
Time – 12:34.
Result – 2 points
9) Player- Gaines.
Situation – Moving screen.
Time – 12:17.
Result – Turnover
10) Player- Parker.
Situation – Charge.
Time – 10:05.
Result – 2 points
St John’s
Turnover Total – 16
Points off turnovers – 15
Percentage of points off turnovers – 27.8%
1) Player- Parker.
Situation – Unknown.
Time – 17:50 – 1st.
Result – 3 points
2) Player- Kilpatrick.
Situation – Threw the ball out of bounds.
Time – 17:08.
Result – StJ turnover
3) Player- Wright.
Situation – Unknown.
Time – 6:45.
Result – Miss
4) Player- Gaines.
Situation – Unknown.
Time – 3:45.
Result – Miss
5) Player- Gaines.
Situation – Offensive Foul.
Time – 3:18.
Result – Miss
6) Player- Mbodj.
Situation – Unknown.
Time – 2:51.
Result – StJ turnover
7) Player- Kilpatrick.
Situation – Steal.
Time – 1:59.
Result – 2 missed FTs
8) Player- Kilpatrick.
Situation – Throw Away.
Time – 1:34.
Result – 2 points
9) Player- Dixon.
Situation – Steal.
Time – 18:48 -2.
Result – 3 points
10) Player- Wright.
Situation – Unknown.
Time – 13:28.
Result – Miss
The last 6 don’t matter in the outcome. St John’s scored 7 points off them.
Marquette
1) Player- Kilpatrick.
Situation – Lost his dribble.
Time – 13:09 -1 .
Result – 2 points
2) Player- Guyn.
Situation – Got a rebound, made a horrible pass trying to lead the break.
Time – 12:19.
Result – 1 point
3) Player- Jackson.
Situation – Dribbled the ball off his foot.
Time – 12:03.
Result – Miss
4) Player- Jackson.
Situation – Nearly a rolled pass to Dixon, tie up.
Time – 10:44.
Result – 2 points
5) Player- Wright.
Situation – On the press, tried to throw a pass to the baseline from the Marq 3 point line, stolen.
Time – 9:35.
Result – 2 points
6) Player- Wright.
Situation – Ball poked away in transition.
Time – 8:48.
Result – 2 points
7) Player- Dixon.
Situation – Bad pass on the press break.
Time – 8:30.
Result – 2 points
8) Player- Wright.
Situation – Trapped, pass deflected.
Time – 8:24.
Result – 2 points
9) Player- Mbodj.
Situation – Charge.
Time – 4:38.
Result – 3 points
10) Player- Parker.
Situation – Moving screen.
Time – 16:55 – 2.
Result – 3 points
11) Player- Jackson.
Situation – Stepped out of bounds.
Time – 13:14.
Result – Miss
12) Player- Jackson.
Situation – Tries a quick pass to a cutting Cash, who wasn’t open.
Time – 11:28.
Result – 2 points
13) Player- Davis.
Situation – Stripped.
Time – 11:13.
Result – 1 point
14) Player- Wright.
Situation – Drove too far under the basket and threw a bad pass back towards Gates.
Time – 8:55.
Result – 2 points
Here’s a quick breakdown of who’s turning it over, how and when
Player
- Wright 10
- Jackson 9
- Parker 8
- Dixon 7
- Kilpatrick 7
- Guyn 5
- Gates 3
- Gaines 3
- Mbodj 3
- Davis 3
- Sanders 1
Situation
- Steal 31
- Offensive Foul 10
- Thrown Out of Bounds 8
- Unknown 5
- Stepped out 2
- Travel 2
- Tie up 1
When
Half 1 first 10 min 13
Half 1 last 10 min 24
Half 2 first 10 min 15
Half 2 last 10 min 7
Points off turnovers 83
What we see here is that Cincinnati is being incredibly sloppy with the basketball late in the first half. The focus and execution are there late in the game. The Bearcats go into funks late in the first half. It seems once the opponent has time to change the game plan, the Bearcats are too long in responding to it. That’s gotta be a part of the case. It’s not like there are any bum coaches in this league. They know what they are doing and execute. It’s no surprise that in the 2 games of fewest turnovers, UC has won.
The biggest thing that stands out are the lazy passes. Those are things that shouldn’t happen. You have to be smart with the ball. UC wasn’t making those mistakes during the middle portion of the season. They were playing great basketball because they were playing smart basketball. Now they are maybe overthinking things too much and paying the price. Bad passing and not protecting the ball account for at least 40 of the 59 tracked turnovers. That’s just not good enough.
The biggest surprised player wise is how much the bench has turned the ball over. You have Jackson and Parker getting 20ish minutes a game, Guyn, Davis, Mbodj turning it over in their spare minutes. Gaines is a turnover machine and he barely plays.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
