Your 2024 defensive player of the year is Houston
Yes, the entire team
Forever ago, during a now-forgotten era of the NBA, there was a time when the Atlanta Hawks were the hottest thing going. On our way to Florida for a winter vacation, my dad and I saw them defeat the Orlando Magic, 87-81, to improve to 16-6. They would lose the next day, and they would lose on December 26 to fall to 21-8. After this, they did not lose for 19 straight games.
A team full of largely anonymous folks that had zero stars was suddenly the biggest story in the NBA. The Hawks became must-see TV every night. Frequently, they did not have the highest individual scorer in a given game. Sometimes they didn’t have either of the top two. It didn’t matter. In sheer depth and volume, they overwhelmed everyone. Paul Millsap, Jeff Teague, Al Horford, DeMarre Carroll; these guys were the lowest-profile winners in modern history.
When they completed the undefeated month of January, a perfect 17-0, the NBA responded the only way it knew how: by naming the entire starting five as the Eastern Conference Player(s) of the Month.
This has never happened before or since. For one month in history, the world was overtaken not by one player or two but by an entire five that functioned better together than apart.
The 2023-24 Houston Cougars are like that, but for perhaps the best all-around defense I have seen at the college level in a decade or longer. Most may argue for 2018-19 Texas Tech, 2017-18 Virginia, or 2014-15 Kentucky, but I think you’ve gotta look at these guys. There is a true star, who we’ll get to, but I don’t think he’s a star exclusively because of his defense. Instead, Houston has four players you could point to as a legitimate Best Defender in America candidate.
Houston sits #1 in KenPom’s Defensive Rating, which is one thing, but the level of havoc the Cougars force on the court is nuts. They block 16.2% of opponent two-point attempts. They create steals (aka, not non-steal turnovers) on 15.8% of opponent possessions. Together, that’s what’s known as a Hakeem Rate (or Stock Rate, if you prefer) of 32%. It’s the first 30%+ offering since 2013-14 Syracuse and the highest of any kind since 2012-13 Syracuse (33%), who you may remember making a Final Four.
Thanks to a suggestion from Friend of the Substack Jim Root, I thought this - just two days from Houston’s final game of the regular season - would be the best time to explore the case for any one of these guys winning national awards. Also, why none of them might win any individual national awards, because, well, you’ll see.