March Madness Betting 2023: College Basketball’s Top Defensive Teams
Selection Sunday is less than two weeks away and the final regular season games conclude ahead of the college basketball conference tournaments and the Big Dance during March Madness. You can review and follow the key conference races and games to close the season as I provided last week. And I’ve updated college basketball’s top defensive teams stats to help you down the stretch and at tournament time for the NCAA Tournament. Follow along and read more of my March Madness update with championship odds and top defensive teams stats at Off Shore Gaming Association.
I discuss the importance of teams field goal defense along with other key stats and college basketball’s top defensive teams defensive efficiency ratings.
College Basketball Top Defensive Teams
| Team | Conference | FG% Def | 3-pt Def | PPG Def | Reb Margin | Adj Def Rank |
| Houston | AAC | 35.9 | 27.7 | 55.9 | 7.6 | 7 |
| Tennessee | SEC | 35.9 | 25.1 | 57.1 | 6.9 | 1 |
| Alabama | SEC | 37.4 | 27.1 | 68.6 | 7.2 | 5 |
| Mississippi St | SEC | 38.8 | 30.1 | 59.5 | 3.5 | 4 |
| Rutgers | Big Ten | 38.9 | 29.9 | 59.8 | 3.1 | 3 |
| Auburn | SEC | 39.3 | 27.7 | 65.6 | 2.8 | 15 |
| Oklahoma St | Big 12 | 40.1 | 30.8 | 66.3 | 2.6 | 14 |
| Texas A&M | SEC | 40.3 | 33.1 | 65.8 | 5.6 | 45 |
| St. Mary’s | West Coast | 40.3 | 32.3 | 58.5 | 8.1 | 6 |
| Arizona | Pac 12 | 40.5 | 32.5 | 70.6 | 7.1 | 40 |
| Illinois | Big Ten | 40.6 | 33 | 65.5 | 5.5 | 27 |
| UCLA | Pac 12 | 40.7 | 30.6 | 59.8 | 3.8 | 2 |
| UCONN | Big East | 41.1 | 29.8 | 64.5 | 9.2 | 21 |
| Michigan St | Big Ten | 41.1 | 29.3 | 65.5 | 3.3 | 26 |
| Kansas | Big 12 | 41.1 | 32.1 | 68.1 | 2.2 | 9 |
| Boise St | Mountain West | 4.1 | 30.2 | 63.1 | 4.5 | 10 |
| North Texas | Conf USA | 41.1 | 31.1 | 57.1 | 4.7 | 41 |
| Arkansas | SEC | 40.9 | 32.1 | 65.5 | 3.5 | 12 |
| Purdue | Big Ten | 41.2 | 30.2 | 61.6 | 11.3 | 19 |
| San Diego St | Mountain West | 42.3 | 28.6 | 64.9 | 4.7 | 16 |
Field goal percentage defense is more important than points allowed, because an opponent’s points can be determined to a degree by the number of possessions they have, which in turn can be influenced by an offensive pace that creates lower overall possessions in a game. Isolating a team’s overall defensive field goal percentage and 3-point field goal percentage defense remain key indicators when judging a team’s defensive ability.
Read more of my top defensive teams evaluations and explanation in my pre-NCAA Tournament coverage with information you can bet on at OSGA.
More March Madness coverage ahead including the a breakdown of the top 20 seeds (1-5) in the 2023 NCAA Tournament.
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