What gives me cautious optimism about our defense is how different it is from years past. Our two point defense ranks 26th in the nation, by far (like, really really far) the best we've done in that department since 2011, which is generally considered to be the last year that K was able to coach defense. We can officially retire the "layup line" narrative, at least for this year.
Another thing is that our ranking of 73rd defensively is a bit deceptive. Carolina is ranked 18th in the country defensively, but their adjusted efficiency (93.6) is closer to ours (98.0) than it is to any of the truly elite defenses (UVA, Cincinnati, Purdue). In fact, most of our defensive metrics are just flat-out better than Carolina's. We defend the three better, we defend the two better, we block more shots and we force more turnovers than they do. Their only clear advantage over us defensively is their rebounding rate.
I don't know if a 6% difference in defensive rebounding rate could be worth 4.4 points in adjusted efficiency, but I can't think of any other explanation for the discrepancy. We are a large team with two of the best rebounders in the conference. I know this is a historical weak point for Duke, but surely we should be able to compete better on the defensive glass.
