Lady Bears' Sims focused on limiting turnovers

By Brice Cherry

Care to venture a guess what statistic Odyssey Sims glances at first when she looks at the box score?

Points? Assists? Steals?

Try none of the above.

It's turnovers.

It's not that Sims focuses on the negative. On the contrary. Baylor's sophomore point guard simply understands the positive value of finishing with a low number in the turnover department. On nights when she has performed particularly well in that regard, she'll often poke BU coach Kim Mulkey on the postgame interview podium, point at the stat sheet and say, "See?"

After Wednesday's 71-44 win over Oklahoma State, Sims wasn't able to do that, as she recorded seven turnovers.

"I had one turnover in transition where I was looking up and they were right there," said Sims, who ranked 35th nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio entering the week. "That's my fault. I don't blame my teammates. I don't blame anyone but myself. I just know I'm going to get better in that area, and that's something I'm going to work on every day."

Despite the seven turnovers, I didn't think Sims played a frenzied, out-of-control floor game against OSU. Two of her turnovers came on charging fouls that could have gone the other way, while at least one other turnover was the result of a perfectly-thrown pass that bounced off the fingertips of its intended target.

Besides, Sims also had 21 points, six rebounds and eight assists. And she constantly agitated OSU's Tiffany Bias on the defensive end, as the Cowgirl guard recorded only two points on 0-for-8 shooting.

With defensive effort like that, Mulkey is willing to give Sims a pass on the turnovers — for the most part.

"Odyssey is the only one who guarded (Bias). Every bit of credit goes to her," Mulkey said. "When you hold a player as good as she is to that, I think I would look the other way and not look at those turnovers as much.

"Now, if those turnovers had come like in the men's game last night, when K-State had a four-point lead and the point guard had three turnovers in a row, and Frank Martin called him out after the game? She'd be called out, too."

Then Mulkey grinned and bellowed, "But I'm glad they had those turnovers, because Baylor won!"

      Email    Print