Trying to help Dave's case ...
From Luke Winn on the SI Site:
http://www.kenpom.com/stats.php
"In the six years kenpom.com has tracked tempo-free statistics, no Final Four team has been ranked outside the top 25 in adjusted defensive efficiency*. And only two Elite Eight teams in the past six years have ranked outside the top 50 in adjusted defensive efficiency. Having a decent offense matters, too, but the data shows just how unlikely it is for a non-elite defensive team to make a deep tournament run".
However, in a later posting
"It’s my nature to try to find some kind of numerical explanation for what happened in the Cornell-Temple game, so I settled on this: Highly efficient defensive teams with really bad offenses — like the Owls — have not been good of late in the dance"
You just can't win (I guess unless you have a good offense coupled with a stout defense - hey, that makes sense )