FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas is 4-1 going into Wednesday night’s game against Texas Southern, but Coach John Pelphrey said the Razorbacks have a laundry list of areas for improvement.

At the top is cutting down on turnovers.

The Razorbacks’ minus-1. 6 turnover margin ranks ninth in the SEC and their 0. 9 assist-toturnover ratio ranks eighth.

For the season, Arkansas has 70 turnovers compared to 62 for its opponents — 14. 0 per game to 12. 4 — and the Razorbacks have 60 assists for a 12. 0 average that ranks 10 th in the SEC.

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“The team needs to get better, no question about that,” Pelphrey said. “I’d like to see us have more assists than turnovers, a higher number of steals, force more turnovers with our opponents.”

The only Razorbacks with more assists than turnovers are junior guard Stefan Welsh, who has 15 assists and 12 turnovers, freshman guard Rotnei Clarke and junior guard Marcus Britt, who has four assists and two turnovers.

“We’ve got some young guys in the backcourt, and we can clean that up,” said Clarke, who has six assists and four turnovers. “And hopefully make some better decisions, which we will.”

Clarke is one of three freshman starters for Arkansas, along with point guard Courtney Fortson and forward Michael Sanchez, who redshirted last year.

The team has four other newcomers in guard Jason Henry and forwards Andre Clark, Brandon Moore and Montrell McDonald.

Henry, who has been suspended the previous three games, is expected to dress out Wednesday night.

McDonald remains on indefinite suspension after missing the Razorbacks’ 86-61 victory over Florida A&M last Saturday.

“We’re young, and we’re making mental mistakes,” Welsh said of the turnovers. “Careless passes, traveling, not getting our foot down before we pivot.

“ Just little things that can be corrected with repetition.”

Fortson is averaging a teamhigh 16. 4 points and leads the Razorbacks in assists (23 ) and turnovers (23 ).

He’s also averaging 4. 6 rebounds and shooting 54. 7 percent from the field.

“We certainly aspire for him to have a better assist-to-turnover ratio than that,” Pelphrey said.

“But by the same token, the guy’s doing a tremendous amount for us.”

Welsh said Fortson is going through “growing pains” that affect any player making the transition from high school to college, even one as talented as Derrick Rose at Memphis last season.

Rose helped Memphis to a runner-up finish to Kansas at the Final Four as a freshman point guard and was the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft by Chicago.

While Rose finished with 189 assists and 107 turnovers last season, after the first four games he had 9 assists and 12 turnovers.

By comparison, Fortson’s assist and turnover stats don’t seem so alarming.

“It’s nothing to panic over,” Welsh said. “One thing about Courtney is he loves to get better. He loves to take constructive criticism.

“ He’s a hard worker, so I know he’s committed to cutting down his turnovers. He’s going to continue to get better as the season goes on.”

Pelphrey said that not all of the turnovers credited to Fortson may be his fault.

Sometimes what looks like an errant pass might have been in the right spot if a teammate had done what he was supposed to do.

Fortson and other Razorbacks also have missed out on assists when a teammate failed to finish a play properly and score.

Pelphrey said for the Razorbacks to put up the kind of numbers they want with more assists and fewer turnovers “we’ve got to learn to operate and play together better” as a team.

Gaining that kind of unity is going to take more games and practices.