Marquette vs. Georgetown - 2 Worst Turnover Differential Teams in Big 6 Conferences

Another great day shooting for Marquette led to a great start, but lopsided loss to Villanova. The one problem once again was turnovers. Yes, 7 of 16 free throws was a bad night, but on average a team hits 11 of 16 free throws so that only costs Marquette 4 points - less if they grab just one of the rebounds of those missed shots and score on the possession.

But turning the ball over 17 times while forcing only four turnovers is tough to overcome. Looking at national stats at www.kenpom.com a huge difference in turnovers (though not that big a discrepancy) was not completely unexpected. Villanova forces turnovers on 19.0 percent of opponents' possessions while only turning the ball over 11.6% of their trips - a +7.4 that ranks 15th in the nation in Turnover Advantage.

Unfortunately Marquette's 21.2 percent turnover ratio compared to turning opponents' over 14.8 percent of the time is a -6.4, the second worst difference of any team in the top six conferences. As you can see from the bottom of this table, only Georgetown is worst. The good news is that with one area being such a weak spot - and potentially somewhat explained by all the missed practice time, there is really only one problem that really needs to be fixed for this to be a very exciting team with a high ceiling. Here are the top 25 teams in Turnover Advantage, followed by the worst 10 teams among the top six conferences.

Georgetown and Marquette should both improve Saturday - when they play each other.

Rnk	Turnovers Forced - TO	Conf	TO advantage	Off TO%	Def TO%
1	Wake Forest	ACC	14.8	18.2	33
2	N.C. State	ACC	13.2	15.9	29.1
3	Utah	P12	13	13.5	26.5
4	Texas Tech	B12	12.3	16.5	28.8
5	Baylor	B12	11.5	15.7	27.2
6	Eastern Kentucky	OVC	11.2	17	28.2
7	Tennessee	SEC	11	14.9	25.9
8	Fordham	A10	10.9	10.9	21.8
9	Florida Atlantic	CUSA	9.4	15.5	24.9
10	UAB	CUSA	9.2	15.4	24.6
11	Sacramento St.	BSky	8.3	17.4	25.7
12	Clemson	ACC	7.7	19.9	27.6
13	Arizona St.	P12	7.6	15.4	23
14	Iowa	B10	7.5	12.6	20.1
15	Villanova	BE	7.4	11.6	19
16	Houston	Amer	7.4	18.1	25.5
17	Pacific	WCC	7.3	12	19.3
18	Mississippi	SEC	7	20.5	27.5
19	Abilene Christian	Slnd	7	21.8	28.8
20	Massachusetts	A10	6.8	15.3	22.1
21	Navy	Pat	6.8	14.7	21.5
22	LIU	NEC	6.6	16	22.6
23	UT Rio Grande Valley	WAC	6.6	18.3	24.9
24	Wisconsin	B10	6.4	12.2	18.6
25	St. John's	BE	6.3	17.2	23.5
	Worst 10 Major Conf	Conf	TO advantage	Off TO%	Def TO%
1	Georgetown	BE	-8	21.7	13.7
2	Marquette	BE	-6.4	21.2	14.8
3	Kentucky	SEC	-4.9	22.8	17.9
4	Notre Dame	ACC	-4.7	16.7	12
5	DePaul	BE	-4.7	21.8	17.1
6	South Carolina	SEC	-4.3	26.5	22.2
7	Illinois	B10	-4	18.9	14.9
8	Michigan	B10	-3.6	18.3	14.7
9	Michigan St.	B10	-3	18	15
10	Iowa St.	B12	-2.8	23.5	20.7