This team plays defense like NOBODY else

How Hawaii forces opponents into unassisted offense.

I’ve been making team-specific breakdown videos on my YouTube channel since 2018. Over that time, I’ve learned that the videos that get the most views aren’t always about the biggest brands.

The three programs that have generated the most views are…

1. Bellarmine— 2.7 million views

2. Houston — 604,000 views

3. Carleton — 518,000 views

That’s right… an ASUN school and a Canadian school are what broke through the YouTube algorithm. That’s because views are often driven more by title and thumbnail than by program prestige.

That brings me to last week’s video. Instead of focusing on a team in the national title conversation, I chose a mid-major currently ranked 110th in Kenpom.

Why? Because Eran Ganot, head coach of the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors, has a very distinct defensive style — one that emphasizes limited help and forces opponents into unassisted shot attempts.

Hawaii’s defense consistently allows among the fewest assists and three-point attempts in the country year after year.

Because most three-point shots are assisted, those two stats tend to be strongly correlated. In the video, I show that the correlation coefficient between opponent assist rate and opponent three-point attempt rate is 0.6.

There are, however, some interesting exceptions.

I originally planned to include Michigan in the video, but that section was cut from the final draft.

The Wolverines don’t allow many assisted baskets — they rank 14th nationally in opponent assist rate. But unlike Hawaii, they allow a high volume of threes, ranking 250th in opponent three-point attempt rate.

Why is that the case?

Dusty May’s team allows more off-the-dribble three-point attempts than any defense in the country — and by a significant margin. Here are the 10 teams that allow the most.

Michigan has excellent size and rim protection. Not only do they allow the most off-the-dribble threes, but the average two-point field goal attempt against them comes from 7.6 feet, which ranks No. 1 nationally as well.

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I’ve already started working on a potential Michigan video. The recent loss to the Duke — combined with the fact that I don’t yet have a strong title/thumbnail direction— made me reconsider whether now is the right time to publish.

Regardless, there’s a good chance you’ll be seeing more Wolverines content in the future.