If there is one thing in youth basketball that can attribute to the win / loss column more than anything it has to be Turnovers. It’s simple, if your team has 20+ turnovers in a game, there’s a good chance you may not win the game (or not win by much). So if you have upwards of 30+ turnovers it is very unlikely that you will win the game. On the other hand if your team has less than 12-15 turnovers per game, you still may not win the game, but your chances of winning would increase. Individual basketball skills such as ball handling, passing, catching, quickness, and proper movement (such as coming to the ball for the pass) – are all good basketball skills that assist with keeping the Turnover in Basketball to a minimum.

Turnovers Defined

A turnover in basketball is basically when a player from one team gives up possession of the basketball to the other team by some act of losing the ball. This can result from a variety of things such as poor dribbling, poor passing, poor catching, poor positioning, poor court vision, poor decision making, etc. The turnover in basketball is a measure of poor offensive execution and / or great defense.

There are coaches that say that the referee lost the game for us, or that they lost because they missed too many easy lay-ups, or too many missed free throws. Did these things actually help affect the outcome of the game, YES (except for the referee part), but I can tell you that turnovers are present each and every game and turnovers in youth basketball will be a major factor with winning or losing. You can make the easy lay-ups and all your free throws, but if you still have too many turnovers, the chances of winning are less and less. The main problem with turnovers is the fact that when your team turns the ball over – you now lost the opportunity to score points and have given the other team the opportunity to score points. The turnover in basketball most always turn into potential scoring opportunities for your opponent. READ MORE HERE!