Duke basketball: The five greatest defensive teams under Coach K

• Team’s top five defenders: Christian Laettner, Grant Hill, Thomas Hill, Bobby Hurley, Brian Davis
• 73.4 points allowed per game
• 44.5 opponents’ field goal percentage
• 9.3 steals per game
• 4.1 blocks per game
• Defensive grade: 97.5

Considering the 1991-92 Blue Devils finished 34-2 with nets in hand after welcoming the return of all the most significant pieces from the 1990-91 squad, one might think the unquestioned greatest overall Duke team in history would have been better at defense than the previous team.

The stats say otherwise. So too does the fact that the Duke team responsible for the program’s second NCAA title had developed an extraordinarily efficient offense and did not have to rely on defense quite to the degree of the previous team.

And remember, the most important win in Duke basketball history — many would also say the greatest — came in the second-to-last game of the 1990-91 season and ended with a defensive stand.

The UNLV Runnin’ Rebels, riding a 45-game win streak that included a 30-point whooping of Duke in the previous season’s title game, had 12 seconds left to erase a two-point lead to keep the Blue Devils from pulling off one of the biggest April college basketball upsets in history and allow Mike Krzyzewski’s first ultimate winners to dance on a stage in Indianapolis two nights later.

So in order to put a stop to UNLV’s last-ditch effort, freshman sensation Grant Hill, who averaged 1.4 steals and 0.8 blocks for the season, stayed tight with UNLV’s Larry Johnson as he brought the ball across halfcourt. And when Hill bumped into UNLV’s Stacey Augmon, along came Christian Laettner — who averaged 1.9 steals and 1.1 blocks that season and was an underappreciated defender for his career — who dared Johnson for a moment to shoot what could have been a game-winning 3-pointer for UNLV.

But Johnson second-guessed himself — probably due in large part to Laettner’s sly mind-control techniques as one can see below. Rather than shoot, he flipped the ball over to guard Anthony Hunt with five seconds remaining and desperation now setting in.

Fortunately for the Blue Devils, sophomore point guard Bobby Hurley — who hounded opposing guards all season and averaged 1.3 steals — was not only nearly in position to pick off the pass, but he stayed in Hunt’s grill as the running-out-of-options Rebel heaved a contested prayer (Laettner had alertly glided over to put another hand in his face) from about 25 feet out with three ticks on the clock. Clang!

That defensive stand — which also included blue-collar junior forward Brian Davis, who pitched in a steal per game that season, and sophomore guard Thomas Hill, who averaged 1.5 steals and doesn’t receive nearly enough mentions when folks talk about the back-to-back title squads — highlighted what these Blue Devils were all about.

Communicating with one another. Reading one another’s movements. Being as tough as nails as a unit. Believing together that they had what it takes, beginning and ending with their hard-nosed and intelligent defense, to wear the crown at the end of the Big Dance.

Speaking of a champion, we’ve now reached Duke’s all-time defensive team…