Next step in Gophers women's basketball development: limiting turnovers

The Gopher women's basketball team's quest to limit turnovers will rarely be this important. Friday in Maryland, the Terrapins turned 23 Gophers turnovers into 30 points in a 22-point victory.

And now it only gets harder.

Minnesota (8-6 overall, 1-2 in Big Ten play) hosts Ohio State on Thursday at Williams Arena. Undefeated Ohio State (15-0, 4-0). Third-ranked Ohio State. One of the best teams in the country at applying pressure, forcing turnovers and turning them into points.

So, guess what coach Lindsay Whalen spent a lot of time working on this week?

This has been an ongoing process for the Gophers, who field one of the youngest starting lineups in the country. And, as Whalen said after the Maryland game, sometimes young players need to learn some difficult lessons during games.

"The windows you are used to making passes, that you're used to those windows being there — against a long, athletic team, they're not there all the time."

Look at the boxscore of that game and the turnovers are, frankly, everything. Maryland had a 28-point edge on points off turnovers and won by 22.

Interestingly, when the Gophers did manage to take care of the ball, their offense ran relatively smoothly. They shot 47.9%, their best in a conference game this season and their second-best of the season. They had 19 assists on 34 made shots while scoring 85 points. Center Rose Micheaux (22 points on 10-for-15 shooting) had perhaps her best game in one-plus seasons with the team.

But the turnovers…

All five starters had multiple turnovers, and those five together — Micheaux, Katie Borowicz, Amaya Battle, Mara Braun and Mallory Heyer — combined for 20. And, as Whalen told the team earlier this week, all you'll get from the Buckeyes is more of the same. Ohio State is third in the nation with 14.5 steals per game and 25.13 forced turnovers per game.

To Micheaux, it's time to stop blaming inexperience. "We can't use that we're a young team as an excuse," she said. "This game will be a good checking point for us to show we can play against good competition."

Freshman Amaya Battle has filled the stat sheet much of the season. She is fifth on the team in scoring (9.8), first in assists (4.7) and, from the guard position, second in rebounding (6.4). But she, too, needs to cut down on turnovers as one of the team's two primary ballhandlers.

"I definitely learned what a really good basketball team looked like," said Battle of Maryland. "What we could look like in the future. I learned a lot in that game. I think we all did. We have got to take better care of the ball. We have to play with more maturity. Just stick together when it gets hard."

As Whalen said, it's not like the mantra of ball security hasn't been preached before. "I told 'em a few times to stop [turning the ball over]," she joked.

And it's too much to expect this team to clean this issue up overnight. But Whalen and her staff need to see improvement.

"Sometimes the best possession you can have as a point guard is just swinging the ball and getting your team into the offense," Whalen said. "We've had a little on-the-job training. As long as we keep making steps, we'll continue to get better."