Texas Basketball: How good defense isn’t translating to Longhorn wins

The trends

With a good performance against Baylor in that seven-point loss on Feb. 10, Texas basketball moved back into the top 100 ranked Division 1 programs in defensive rating on the season. Texas has a team defensive rating on the season of 95.2, which is good for 92nd in the country. They also allow just 63.3 points per game, which is good for 35th in the country.

Usually, allowing 60 points or less to their opposition is the key to success for the Longhorns. Texas is 9-2 on the season when allowing 61 points or less. The only two losses in those constraints came against Baylor. In all likelihood, Baylor will be the only team on the season that holds Texas to a combined less than 90 points.

The correlation between strong defense and wins gets even more pertinent when comparing defensive rating to record. Texas is 10-2 on the season when registering a defensive rating lower than 95. One of those two losses came against Baylor on Monday night and the other against the Texas Tech Red Raiders, in that dreary 62-57 defeat on Feb. 8.