Utes must solve turnover problem

Until the Utah basketball team figures out a way to stop turning the ball over, it’s going to be a short season. The Utes won’t be going far in the postseason if they can’t find a way to hang on to the ball.
Once again turnovers killed the Utes chances Saturday in Las Vegas, where they turned the ball over 18 times, compared to just nine for the Rebels. That’s nine fewer chances to score, which is why the Utes lost by 10 points, despite dominating early on.
Coach Jim Boylen is aware of the problem and said his team works on ball-handling frequently in practice. Part of the problem is that Utah’s foreign players are good for at least one traveling violation per game. Otherwise the big culprits seem to be poor decisions on passes and just not hanging onto the ball in traffic.
Going into Saturday’s game, the Utes ranked 295th in the nation in turnover margin. When the new stats come out Monday, they could be very close to the bottom among the 340 Division I teams.