We were 15th in the country last year in Evan Miya's defense rankings. UCONN was 6th in the country and St. John's was 8th. No other Big East team was in the top 30.
The prior year, St. John's was 2nd in the country, Marquette 22nd, and a number of other Big East teams in the 30-50 range (Creighton - with Kalkbrenner, UCONN and Xavier - with Sean Miller coaching them). We were 90th in the country by those defensive rankings.
The prior year, UCONN was 4th in the country, Marquette 14th, Villanova (with Neptune) 16th, Providence 23rd, Creighton 24th. We were 29th.
I can't figure out how to check Kenpom's ratings for last year -- probably because I don't have a subscription -- but I'm sure it isn't far off from Miya's defensive efficiency rankings. Which shows we were very good, but so was Uconn and SJU. And, in prior years, Marquette with Shaka was right up there as a top 25 defensive unit in the country from at least those metrics.
I think we will be good defensively because Sha is a good defensive coach, recruits for his style, and because how we play offensively tends to play into our defense. But to say as the other poster did that no one in the league can play defense like us? Well, I think that's a bit premature.