Mississippi State women’s basketball is in the midst of a perfectly respectable season. The Bulldogs have won 15 games with a few nice victories on the resume and haven’t taken a bad loss. If they continue on their current trajectory, they’ll likely return to the NCAA Tournament.

But Bulldog fans want more out of this program, and there’s one big problem that’s preventing MSU from breaking through into the SEC’s upper-echelon. There’s been a consistent culprit for the Bulldogs’ losses, and its an issue that’s persisted for a while.

Mississippi State women’s basketball has a turnover problem and has for a long time

The biggest flaw by far for Mississippi State women’s basketball has been their knack for turning the ball over. The Bulldogs are committing an ugly 16.5 turnovers per game. That ranks 180th nationally and 12th in the SEC.

That number jumps up to 18 per game in their five losses to this point, and in only one of those losses did turnovers not play a significant role in the final. Against Georgia Tech, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Ole Miss, State allowed an average of 23 points off turnovers. They lost those four games by an average of about 12.8 points (South Carolina’s 27-point win skews things a bit).

In the case of the Georgia Tech, Tennessee, and Ole Miss losses, MSU otherwise played well enough to win. If they were simply taking better care of the basketball, we could be having very different conversations about this team right now.

But this problem isn’t new. Turnovers were devastating for State last season as well. During last year’s late-season losing five game losing skid that ultimately kept the Bulldogs out of the tournament, State committed 18.2 turnovers per game and allowed an average of 19.6 points off those turnovers.

In fact, turnovers were a regular issue for Sam Purcell’s first team as well (15.9 per game). Now of course it’s not like the turnovers entirely go away in their wins. They’re still turnover prone in those games too. In fact they’ve managed some impressive wins over the last few years will committing ungodly amounts of turnovers. And that’s because they do a good job of turning over the opposition as well. They still have a positive turnover margin on the season, though several non-conference blowouts are aiding that significantly.

The problem is that when they run into better competition or if they aren’t forcing their opponents into a ton of mistakes themselves, their turnovers consistently prove to be costly. They are frequently the deciding factor in games.

As noted, this has been a recurring theme during Sam Purcell’s tenure, and what makes it more concerning is that the issue has existed with three different rosters. Purcell has seen major roster turnover during his three years, but despite changing personnel, the same issue comes up.

That’s a crystal clear sign that the turnover bug that’s infected Mississippi State women’s basketball falls back on coaching. There’s either something Purcell is coaching that’s leading to turnovers or whatever messaging he has to address that issue has failed to get through to his team. Either way, that’s a big problem.

Sam Purcell has brought great talent to Starkville. He’s brought in enough to build a high-level team, and this roster has enough to be a winner in the SEC. But now he’s got to get that talent executing on the court and taking care of the basketball. Otherwise, you’re going to see another average season out of the Bulldogs.