DES MOINES, Iowa — As Penn State takes on Texas in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday evening the Nittany Lions will need to do a lot of things well against the No. 2 seed. Fortunately for Penn State, one of those things is something it has been great at all year: not turning the ball over.
Texas enters Saturday’s contest one of the best teams in the nation at forcing turnovers to an average of 16.06 per game, 17th-best in the country. Penn State for its part will take the court the fourth-best team in the nation at not turning the ball over, averaging just nine turnovers per game. So far this season the Nittany Lions have racked up single-digit turnovers in 25 games. Penn State has also never turned the ball over more than 14 times in a game.
So something has got to give.
“It’s different every game depending on who the team is and what people are trying to tackle on defense and stuff like that, but generally we want to be the more aggressive team and speed teams up,” Texas guard Marcus Carr said on Friday. “But like you said, they do a good job of taking care of the basket, so it’s going to be a battle of two good teams.”
It will make for an interesting stat to watch as the game rolls along. Obviously a second-round meeting between these two teams will be decided by a lot of things, but Texas is 2-1 this season in games that its opponent only turned the ball over a single-digit number of times. And in the two wins, the Longhorns won by just five points on both occasions. The lone loss coming against Iowa State 78-67.
The key to not turning the ball over? Play smart. Also helps if you can dribble well.
“I would say having ball handlers on the court at all times,” Penn State guard Cam Wynter said. “Guys trusting each other with making decisions and also not going for the home run play, just keep taking singles and singles until the home runs present themselves. I feel like we all kind of play within ourselves. So don’t try to do too much. We just play for each other, and I feel like that’s how we’re secure with the ball and not making stupid decisions. We have a lot of great decision makers and we’re just trying to make the right decision for our team.”
Take care of the simple things and the second round wins might take care of themselves. Time will tell, check back in a few hours. Texas A&M similarly found its offense all year by forcing turnovers and the Nittany Lions coughed the ball up just five times all game in that blowout victory. Over the past 11 games Penn State has turned the ball over double-digit times just three times, winning two of those three games, the third a 10-turnover effort against Purdue in the Big Ten Tournament Final. And while the Nittany Lions may have had a turnover on their final possession of the game, it wasn’t really why Penn State lost.
