Wildcats on track for record low turnover count

The Perth Wildcats are taking care of the basketball better than any team ever has in the competition’s history.

That’s according to the stats, which show the Wildcats average an all-time low 9.5 turnovers per game.

No team in NBL history has averaged less than 10 turnovers per game over the course of an entire season.

Two thirds of the way through 2020/21, the coach admitted his team has exceeded his expectations, and perhaps its ability to maintain possession of the basketball is why.

“This team has come together much more than I anticipated at the start of the year. When you look at the starting line-up, Mitch was a backup last year to Damo, Blanchfield’s a journeyman, you’ve got Bairstow who never played in the NBL on a regular contract and a rookie in John Mooney,” he said.

“To get those guys to gel so well, and to play Wildcats basketball, it’s been fast tracked really this year.”

Remarkably, the Wildcats previous best turnover rate was last season, with 10.1 per game, which is second all-time to the Cairns Taipans 2015/16 season (10.0 per game).

Since Gleeson took the reins at the Wildcats in 2013/14, the Wildcats have had their best seasons in looking after the basketball.

In fact, the organisation’s four lowest-average-turnover- per-game seasons have been the four most recent (including the current season) and all eight of Trevor Gleeson’s seasons at the helm feature in the top-ten.

The Wildcats will look to keep it up when they meet the NZ Breakers in Tasmania on Saturday.

Note: The NBL began keeping turnover records in 1982. The NBL played 48-minute games before switching to 40-minute games in 2009/10.