Texas Tech basketball’s biggest offensive problem is turnovers

The Texas Tech basketball team continues to struggle with turnovers after committing 21 against Arkansas Saturday night.

There has been plenty of talk about the Texas Tech basketball team’s offensive struggles this year. And while there are a number of issues that keep the Red Raiders from being a potent offensive team, the biggest is their inability to take care of the basketball.

In Saturday’s 67-64 win over Arkansas, Tech gave the all away 21 times.  That included 14 in the first half.

This marked the second-worst turnover game of the year after the 24 against Duke.  Overall, Tech has had 17 turnovers at least five times this year but surprisingly, the Red Raiders are 3-2 in those games.

Still, such high-turnover games are severely limiting to an offense that is already hamstrung by a lack of athleticism and an absence players that can create their own shot outside of Jarrett Culver.  For example, consider how turnovers made Saturday’s game against Arkansas far closer than it should have been.

At the 13:37 mark of the first half, Tech held a 17-9 lead and was in position to run away with the game early as its offense was clicking.  But in the next six minutes, Tech would commit three turnovers (two by Norense Odiase and a charge by Jarrett Culver) and Arkansas would cut the deficit to one point at 20-19 with 7:57 to go in the half.

The Razorbacks were able to capitalize on that momentum and take a 33-30 lead into the locker room as Texas Tech had more turnovers in the first half than it has had in twelve other games this year.

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Obviously, ball security was a talking point for the Red Raiders at intermission as Tech opened the second half by giving the ball away just once in the first 13 minutes of play.  During that time, the home team outscored Arkansas 30-15 to take its biggest lead at 60-48.

Again, this was a point when Tech had an opportunity to take the game by the throat and come away with a convincing win that would help reassure a paranoid fan base that the last two weeks of basketball were not indicative of what this team really is.  But Tech did not score another field goal for the rest of the game and a huge reason was because of wasted possessions that ended in turnovers.

In the final seven minutes of play, Tech would commit six turnovers.  Considering that the game has a 30-second shot clock, it is possible for a team to have only one possession per minute (give or take) so averaging almost one turnover per 60 seconds is not a recipe for success.

Tech would turn the ball over on its next two possessions and then Davide Moretti would miss the front-end of a 1-and-1 at the free throw line (which is virtually another turnover) allowing Arkansas to right itself and begin its comeback.  And a few minutes later, one of the Red Raiders’ most carless turnovers of the year nearly cost them the game.

Ahead just 64-61 with 1:01 to play, Tech guard Matt Mooney dribbled the ball off of his foot giving it back to the Hogs.  That was Mooney’s fifth turnover of the night as he continues to struggle to protect the ball.

It was his fourth game in the last eight in which he has had at least three turnovers.  Granted, he is being asked to play a pseudo point guard role that he is not perfectly equipped to handle but as long as the ball is in his hands, he must do a much better job taking care of the basketball.  And dribbling the ball off of his foot in the final minute of a one-score game is inexcusable.

Fortunately, Tech was able to force a turnover of its own on the ensuing Arkansas possession to seal the win.  But if we want to know why Tech’s offense is struggling, we should look no further than turnovers.

The Red Raiders are 4th in the Big 12 in shooting percentage at 46.8% so, despite popular opinion, they can shoot the ball well enough to win.  The same goes for 3-point percentage as Tech ranks 5th in the conference at 34.3%.

But in Big 12 play, the Red Raiders are last in assist-to-turnover ratio at just 0.7.  Tech’s 94 turnovers in conference games is third-most and a huge reason why the offense has been stymied.

Two of the games (Baylor and Kansas State) in Tech’s 3-game losing streak saw the Red Raiders give the ball away at least 13 times.  Against Baylor, Tech shot the ball well enough to win (46.7%) but lost the ball 17 times.  Had Tech been able to cut that number in half, the game would have been right there for the taking.

The good news is that this team’s biggest offensive problem is also its most correctable.  This year’s version of the Red Raiders is not going to add a new player capable of brining more offensive firepower to the court nor will its athletically below-average guards suddenly start to beat defenders off the dribble.  But if Tech can stop giving the ball away at such a maddening rate, they could find that their offense will pick up as more and more possessions end in a decent shot rather than in a turnover.