Big East Bonanza: Turnover rates, stat leaders, power rankings

Big East Bonanza returns today after a special Tuesday edition last week, offering a closer look at the action within the Big East Conference, and after a deeper profile of St. John's opened the recap a week ago, we will return to an advanced stat lens in the opening segment before reprising stat leaders and power rankings. In today's first act, turnover rates will be the featured spotlight, offering additional insight on which programs care more for the basketball, as well as highlighting those who force more takeaways on the defensive end. For this closeup, all numbers here will only take conference games into account, as each team has played at least five conference games; enough of a sample size to be considered, and the statistics were gleaned from a combination of both Ken Pomeroy's rankings and the most recent set of game notes for each school.

Offensive turnover rates, from lowest to highest: (Big East-only)
1) Butler (11.9 percent)
2) Villanova (12.2)
3) St. John's (15.2)
4) Marquette (16.1)
5) Providence (16.7)
6) Xavier (16.9)
7) Creighton (16.9)
8) Seton Hall (18.2)
9) DePaul (22.0)
10) Georgetown (24.5)

The Butler Did It: The Butler Way has always predicated itself on tremendous discipline on both sides of the basketball, dating back even before the program's greatest height of back-to-back national championship game appearances under Brad Stevens. While the coaches and players have changed in Indianapolis over the years, the same commitment to team-first and fundamentally sound basketball, however, has not. In fact, aside from the 21-turnover performance in their Big East opener against Georgetown that has become more of an anomaly with each passing day, the Bulldogs' value for the ball has been nothing short of exemplary. On three occasions already in the conference season, Butler has posted a single-digit turnover count, and two of those have come in arguably the toughest tests to date for head coach LaVall Jordan's team, committing only four miscues in their 101-93 upset of top-ranked Villanova before an equally impressive seven giveaways in one of the Big East's most hostile road environments at Creighton, supplementing their ball handling with 23 assists on 33 made field goals in an 11-point loss that appears closer than the final score may indicate. The arrival of George Washington transfer Paul Jorgensen has provided a second positive effect aside from that of moving Kamar Baldwin further off the ball and allowing the sophomore to become a more polished scorer, as Jorgensen has committed only five turnovers across the seven Big East games Butler has played to date.

Defensive turnover rates, from highest to lowest: (Big East-only)
1) St. John's (22.2 percent)
2) Villanova (17.9)
3) Marquette (17.9)
4) Georgetown (17.1)
5) Xavier (16.6)
6) Seton Hall (16.5)
7) Providence (16.5)
8) DePaul (16.2)
9) Creighton (15.2)
10) Butler (15.0)

Seeing Red: St. John's led the Big East in defensive turnover rate last season by a wide margin, and is doing the same again this season, a testament to the emphasis Chris Mullin has placed on the Red Storm defending the basketball in direct correlation to their uptempo, transition-heavy attack on offense. While the takeaways have yet to translate to wins, there is a positive to St. John's leading the pack in this category for a second straight year, as the loss of Marcus LoVett has done little to offset the Red Storm's greatest strength. Rather, the addition of Justin Simon (18 steals in six Big East games) and the evolution of Shamorie Ponds into arguably the conference's best two-way player have spearheaded the charge for a team who took a trio of Top 25 teams to the wire with their stifling style, averaging nearly 16 forced turnovers per contest in the process.

Scoring Leaders
1) Markus Howard, Marquette (21.5 PPG)
2) Andrew Rowsey, Marquette (20.8)
3) Shamorie Ponds, St. John's (20.1)
4) Kelan Martin, Butler (19.5)
5) Trevon Bluiett, Xavier (19.2)
6) Marcus Foster, Creighton (18.8)
7) Jalen Brunson, Villanova (18.8)
8) Desi Rodriguez, Seton Hall (18.2)
9) Max Strus, DePaul (17.7)
10) Jessie Govan, Georgetown (17.6)

Rebounding Leaders
1) Angel Delgado, Seton Hall (11.7 RPG)
2) Jessie Govan, Georgetown (11.4)
3) Martin Krampelj, Creighton (8.3)
4) Omari Spellman, Villanova (7.6)
5) Marcus Derrickson, Georgetown (7.5)
6) Justin Simon, St. John's (7.2)
7) Ronnie Harrell, Jr., Creighton (7.0)
8) Rodney Bullock, Providence (6.8)
9) Kelan Martin, Butler (6.7)
10) Marin Maric, DePaul (6.3)

Assist Leaders
1) Kyron Cartwright, Providence (6.4 APG)
2) Quentin Goodin, Xavier (5.5)
3) Jalen Brunson, Villanova (5.2)
4) Shamorie Ponds, St. John's (4.8)
5) Justin Simon, St. John's (4.6)
6) Andrew Rowsey, Marquette (4.3)
7) Khadeen Carrington, Seton Hall (4.2)
T-8) Eli Cain, DePaul (4.0)
T-8) Jonathan Mulmore, Georgetown (4.0)
10) Aaron Thompson, Butler (3.6)

Field Goal Percentage Leaders
1) Tyler Wideman, Butler (.698)
2) Martin Krampelj, Creighton (.674)
3) Tyrique Jones, Xavier (.670)
4) Jalen Brunson, Villanova (.575)
5) Kaleb Johnson, Georgetown (.567)
6) Kerem Kanter, Xavier (.554)
7) Marin Maric, DePaul (.547)
8) Toby Hegner, Creighton (.539)
9) Marcus Derrickson, Georgetown (.536)
10) Jessie Govan, Georgetown (.519)

Free Throw Percentage Leaders
1) Markus Howard, Marquette (1.000)
2) Andrew Rowsey, Marquette (.908)
3) Marcus Derrickson, Georgetown (.907)
4) Marin Maric, DePaul (.889)
5) Kelan Martin, Butler (.868)
6) Shamorie Ponds, St. John's (.857)
7) J.P. Macura, Xavier (.855)
8) Eric Paschall, Villanova (.846)
9) Mikal Bridges, Villanova (.831)
10) Quentin Goodin, Xavier (.830)

Three-Point Field Goal Leaders
1) Sam Hauser, Marquette (.496)
2) Jalen Brunson, Villanova (.481)
3) Jalen Lindsey, Providence (.480)
4) Kyron Cartwright, Providence (.462)
5) Marcus Derrickson, Georgetown (.442)
6) Marvin Clark II, St. John's (.438)
T-7) Phil Booth, Villanova (.438)
T-7) Omari Spellman, Villanova (.438)
9) Marcus Foster, Creighton (.436)
10) Kaiser Gates, Xavier (.432)

Steal Leaders
1) Justin Simon, St. John's (2.6 SPG)
2) Shamorie Ponds, St. John's (2.5)
3) Mikal Bridges, Villanova (1.8)
4) Kamar Baldwin, Butler (1.8)
5) J.P. Macura, Xavier (1.6)

Blocked Shot Leaders
1) Tariq Owens, St. John's (3.6 BPG)
2) Omari Spellman, Villanova (1.5)
3) Jessie Govan, Georgetown (1.4)
4) Mikal Bridges, Villanova (1.4)
5) Matt Heldt, Marquette (1.2)

Power Rankings
1) Villanova (16-1, 4-1 Big East)
Last Week: 2
Last Game: Saturday 1/13 at St. John's (W 78-71)
Next Game: Wednesday 1/17 at Georgetown, 6:30 p.m.

2) Seton Hall (15-3, 4-1 Big East)
Last Week: 1
Last Game: Saturday 1/13 vs. Georgetown (W 74-61)
Next Game: Wednesday 1/17 at Creighton, 8:30 p.m. (7:30 p.m. CT)

3) Xavier (16-3, 4-2 Big East)
Last Week: 3
Last Game: 1/13 vs. Creighton (W 92-70)
Next Game: Wednesday 1/17 vs. St. John's, 8:30 p.m.

4) Creighton (14-4, 4-2 Big East)
Last Week: 4
Last Game: Saturday 1/13 at Xavier (L 92-70)
Next Game: Wednesday 1/17 vs. Seton Hall, 7:30 p.m. (8:30 p.m. ET)

5) Marquette (13-6, 4-3 Big East)
Last Week: 7
Last Game: Monday 1/15 vs. DePaul (W 70-52)
Next Game: Wednesday 1/24 at Xavier, 5:30 p.m. (6:30 p.m. ET)

6) Providence (13-6, 4-2 Big East)
Last Week: 6
Last Game: Monday 1/15 vs. Butler (W 70-60)
Next Game: Saturday 1/20 vs. Creighton, 3 p.m. (2 p.m. CT)

7) Butler (13-7, 3-4 Big East)
Last Week: 5
Last Game: Monday 1/15 at Providence (L 70-60)
Next Game: Saturday 1/20 at DePaul, 2 p.m. (1 p.m. CT)

8) Georgetown (12-5, 2-4 Big East)
Last Week: 8
Last Game: Saturday 1/13 at Seton Hall (L 74-61)
Next Game: Wednesday 1/17 vs. Villanova, 6:30 p.m.

9) DePaul (8-10, 1-5 Big East)
Last Week: 9
Last Game: Monday 1/15 at Marquette (L 70-52)
Next Game: Saturday 1/20 vs. Butler, 1 p.m. (2 p.m. CT)

10) St. John's (10-8, 0-6 Big East)
Last Week: 10
Last Game: Saturday 1/13 vs. Villanova (L 78-71)
Next Game: Wednesday 1/17 at Xavier, 8:30 p.m.