From a 30-thousand foot view, Ohio State appears to be one of the best teams in the country in terms of taking care of the ball.

The Buckeyes boast a turnover rate of 15.8 percent, a top-30 rate nationally and the lowest number (by a significant margin) of the Chris Holtmann era in Columbus.

Zoom in on the month of January, however, and the story isn’t as pretty.

After posting a season-high 16 giveaways on Wednesday night against Penn State, Ohio State dropped to No. 10 in the Big Ten in conference-only turnover rate. It has posted double-digit turnovers in six of seven contests this month.

“We gotta be more committed to not making some of those careless plays,” Holtmann said on Friday. “We’ve got some guys in different roles, but bottom line is we just have to do a better job, and it begins with me.”

Those increasing totals haven’t just come against teams with a defensive reputation, either. The Buckeyes tallied 13 turnovers against a Purdue team that packs the paint and applies very limited pressure and 11 against a Northwestern defense that checks in at No. 312 nationally in terms of taking the ball away.

The reasons for this January jump in errors are multiple, but everything begins with Ohio State’s newly-experienced dearth of point guards.

With no Jimmy Sotos for five games and counting, a limited C.J. Walker, and a high school senior filling in as this team’s third lead guard (Meechie Johnson has been very good in limited minutes), players who normally thrive away from the ball have been forced to take the reins for Holtmann.

As a result, emergency ball-handlers Justice Sueing and Duane Washington Jr. have seen their turnover numbers spike.

Sueing has been inconsistent all season long, averaging 2.2 giveaways per contest through 17 games. But as he has eased into a much larger lead guard role, those issues with control have become clear.

On the other hand, Washington was having a very under-control year by his standards, averaging only 1.7 turnovers per game before Sotos went down against Rutgers.

In the six games since, the junior guard has posted 19 turnovers against the extended pressure and increased focus of opposing defenses.

On top of that, the recent reinsertion of Walker-- the Buckeyes’ senior point guard and usual steady hand-- into the rotation hasn’t helped as much as one may think.

The two games with Walker back at the helm have resulted in 27 combined turnovers, including the pure chaos that was Ohio State’s second half against Penn State.

“There were a number of them that we can control, and there were some that just-- Penn State does what they do, they lead the league in turnover percentage on defense,” Holtmann said. “There were a number of them that we’ll point out and talk about how we have to make better decisions than what we did.”

Believe it or not, this trend of turnovers piling up as the season advances into conference play isn’t a normal one for Holtmann and Ohio State.

On average, his teams take care of the ball slightly better in conference play than outside of it.

As we inch closer and closer to the postseason, this uptick in turnovers isn’t a sign of Ohio State’s eventual collapse.

A more likely conclusion is that opponents are attempting to laser in on the Buckeyes’ obvious issues at point guard by pressuring more and taking risks at every opportunity.

“There were certainly times where we took advantage of their pressure and their gambling. A number of times,” Holtmann said of his team’s attack against Penn State. “But we weren’t able to make sound enough decisions with the ball consistently enough.”

In fact, this team’s offense as a whole is very much trending in the right direction in the most important portion of the season.

By far the most efficient unit of Holtmann’s tenure, the Buckeyes are improving in essentially every area of offense beyond giveaways.

Though unforced errors will never fail to drive coaches (and fans) crazy, they're far from the defining trait of Ohio State’s otherwise top-tier offense.