After a turnover-filled start to the season, LSU coach Nikki Caldwell gave her players a new, rather strange, responsibility.
The first-year coach gave each player a ball baby to take with them everywhere they go.
All 13 players were given their own signed, miniature basketball, to have and to hold, to love and to cherish until they can fix issues taking care of the ball. They must dribble the ball everywhere they go.
“If you go to a football game, the ball goes with you. If you go to class, the ball goes with you. If you go to the bathroom, the ball goes with you,” said sophomore guard Jeanne Kenney. “We’re instructed not to carry the ball. One can guess it’s for it.”
It seems to be paying off.
LSU had 18 or more turnovers in each of its first five games, but in arguably its biggest matchup of the year Sunday against No. 18 Ohio State, the Lady Tigers finished with 14 turnovers, the team’s lowest mark of the season.
Although LSU came out on the wrong end of the back-and-forth battle, Caldwell said she was pleased with her team’s progress.
“I felt like in our last game we did a much better job of being patient and not necessarily trying to make the home run pass right out the gate,” Caldwell said. “We gave our teammates great looks because we were making the extra pass which gave us an easier path to make to our points.”
 
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Contact Mark Clements at [email protected]