Film Session: Analyzing IU’s turnovers
Over the weekend, the Hoosiers posted high turnover rates in wins against Nicholls State (28.3%) and Kennesaw State (26.3%) and now stand 309th in the country in turnover percentage, per KenPom. A supercut of all of their miscues from Friday and Sunday are above.
Two games in a 13-game season present a small sample size. Still, there’s enough of a range of ways the Hoosiers turned it over from these two games that speak to their season-long issues with ball control.
A few themes in the latest edition of Film Session:
Troy’s happy feet
Williams has ended 23.5% of his possessions with a turnover so far this season, fourth worst on the team behind Devin Davis (28.7%), Stanford Robinson (23.8%) and Jeremy Hollowell (23.5%). Of the freshman’s nine turnovers from over the weekend, seven were all of the same ilk; Williams would look to make a move off the perimeter and either travel or lose the ball. At one point against Kennesaw State he tried a spin move and fell over. Later he dribbled the ball off his foot. (The other two turnovers were seriously ill-advised passes. One he tried swinging the ball from right to left on the top of the key to a covered Will Sheehey; he simply just didn’t look where he was passing before it was too late. The other came from another pass that has a low success rate — right wing to left block through a forest of defenders.)
Williams certainly has the athleticism to get by defenders, but there’s still a lot of cart before the horse to his game in that regard. Savvier Big Ten defenses are going to have it on the scouting report and it may continue to be exposed.
Yogi’s impact
Ferrell’s turnover rate is down from his final mark last season (24.5% to 19.7%). His improved shooting is also a plus. But with the ball in his hands so much, he’s bound to continue to make mistakes here and there. Ferrell coughed it up keeping his dribble in the lane over the weekend and also drew a charge trying to go coast to coast. (This is something Evan Gordon also did. If the defender is in front of you with room to get set and you’ve essentially run out of room to pass, they just need to stand tall and wait your arrival. )
Perhaps the biggest problem area from this weekend for Ferrell was the lob. It’s a home run play Indiana hasn’t had the best success rate on this season, either. Sheehey had a hard time hanging onto one against Kennesaw State. Later in that game, Ferrell tried a lob to Davis, who had no clue it was coming. It hit the front of the rim. Ferrell can be heard saying “go get it” (4:55 mark). But by then it’s much too late.
One other turnover of note against the Owls: Ferrell began moving up the court while looking backwards for an inbounds pass as he looks to push it up the floor (4:12). As the ball comes inbounds and Ferrell turns, a Kennesaw State defender has smartly entered directly in front of Ferrell’s path. The sophomore is off balance as he tries to move around him with a behind the back dribble and he loses the ball out of bounds. With Indiana’s penchant for getting the ball up the court fast, Big Ten opponents may try something similar on occasion to try and catch IU napping.
Telegraphin’ over the top
Indiana is making an effort to get the ball into Noah Vonleh. But there comes a fine line between making the smart pass and forcing the issue. Against Nicholls State, Sheehey got the ball on the left wing and looked to pass to Vonleh, who was sealed towards the basket. Sheehey stuck with it, never looking or moving elsewhere. By the time he decided to give it a heave, some backside D stole the ball. Hollowell did a similar thing with Fischer in the that game as well, one of the most sad-looking plays of the weekend (1:33).
The rest …
Davis’ turnover rate was noted above and he made a couple of bad decisions, including tip-toeing the left baseline with nowhere to go and trying to pass it through two defenders to the right corner (steal). Davis also badly telegraphed an outlet pass to Gordon and it was promptly picked. Sheehey got blocked at the rim a decent amount in the non-conference, but he was also flat out stripped on occasion, which can be seen in the above supercut as well.
Filed to: Troy Williams, Yogi Ferrell