I'm not positive but I believe defensive efficiency is measured by points allowed per possession and when a team gets offensive rebounds and scores that is counted as only 1 possession. A game like Texas A&M would kill our efficiency because, even though they didn't shoot a great percentage, they got so many offensive rebounds and didn't have many empty trips.
A surprising thing about this year is that the amount of offensive rebounds UK is allowing isn't really much different than the typical Cal team.
UK has allowed 328 offensive rebounds so far, a tick over 12 per game (or 328/967 opponent misses, for 33.9%, if you want to go that direction).
Last year's final numbers were 11.9 per game, 463/1366, 33.9%
13-14= 11.0, 439/1338, 32.8%
12-13= 12.0, 395/1181, 33.4%
11-12= 12.1, 483/1490, 32.4%
What it looks like is that Cal's emphasis on blocking shots is almost always going to mean that the opposition gets the rebound on around 1/3rd of their misses. This year has clearly seen some really bad patches of not getting rebounds, but the overall numbers are headed right toward Cal's norm.
I think the real answer is fouls. This team fouls a lot, and free throws are very efficient possessions for opponents. This UK team is allowing close to 24 FT's per game. The numbers on that the previous 4 years: 17.2, 20.9, 17.8, 15.4. More fouls are being called this year in general, and this is where UK's lack of bulk/size really shows up.
And some of it is actually a fluke. Not only is UK fouling a lot (that part's not the fluke), but opponents are hitting FT's at 71.4%. Last year, that number was 65.9%, and though there's not a huge variation on that % (it's almost always somewhere between 64 and 72%), the number has only been over 70% four other times in the last 20 years.
