NCAA Basketball: Power ranking top 10 team defenses of 2022-23 season
By Mark Remsa
Selection Sunday is less than a month away, which means the 2022-23 NCAA basketball regular season is starting to wind down and conference tournament play is about to begin. But, fans might be curious as to which teams have consistently been the stoutest and most disruptive on the defensive side of the ball throughout the duration of the season.
There are ten teams across college basketball that have this season’s best defenses. There are certainly some surprising programs that make the list, and then there are the steady defensive stalwarts like Tennessee and Houston on this list.
10. Iowa State Cyclones
Iowa State checks in at number 10 on this list as one of the nation’s best defenses in college basketball. The Cyclones are a team that gets after the ball by forcing their opponents to turn over the ball at least 17 times a game, which is the best in the Big 12 and 9th nationally. The Cyclones also generate at least 9.2 steals per game, which ranks 17th best in the country.
Although the Cyclones are not the best defensive rebounding team, Iowa State is holding their opponents to 61.6 points per game on 41.7% shooting from the field.
9. Boise State Broncos
Boise State has become one of the Mountain West‘s premier defensive teams. Each year the Broncos have steadily improved their defense under head coach Leon Rice.
Under Rice, defense has always been a strong team effort. So, it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone the Broncos are leading the Mountain West in field goal percentage defense (40.4% per game) and 3-point percentage defense (28% per game), and are third in the conference in forcing turnovers (11.5 per game).
The Broncos are also holding opponents to 61.2 points per game (12th nationally) and are close to grabbing 28 rebounds per game on the defensive end (21st nationally).