Clemson basketball has 2 of the top 30 “most impactful” defenders in the country
Defense wins championships. We’ve all heard the saying and it’s coming to fruition for Clemson basketball this season.
The Tigers may be in second place in the ACC right now with a 16-2 record, but they play two of the conference’s bottom-dwellers this week in Boston College and Virginia Tech while first-place Duke has to go to North Carolina next weekend for the huge rivalry battle. A lot of Tiger fans will be wearing Carolina blue this weekend in hopes of helping Clemson win a share of the ACC title.
It would be Clemson’s first ACC title since 1990. The drought needs to end.
If it does end, the Tigers will have the defense to thank. Clemson ranks 35th in the country in points allowed per game at just over 66 and, according to college basketball analytics expert Evan Miya, it has two of the most impactful defenders in the country.
Here are the most impactful defenders in the country according to Defensive Bayesian Performance Rating at https://t.co/cegyfz96ax. DBPR accounts for box stats as well as impact on team performance while on the floor.
Joseph Tugler leads the country, with Cooper Flagg at #2. pic.twitter.com/i4GDVdjBSD
— Evan Miyakawa (@EvanMiya) March 3, 2025
Big man Viktor Lakhin is No. 12 in the country in terms of most impactful defenders and Dillon Hunter is 25th. This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone who has watched Clemson this season and that also means that Lakhin is the second-most impactful defender in the ACC behind only Cooper Flagg who is the projected No. 1 pick in the upcoming NBA draft. Hunter is the ACC’s third-most impactful defender, per Miya.
It’s been fun to watch this team grow this season and when those two are locking down defensively, there aren’t many teams that will want to see the Tigers this March.
