Kansas guard Dajuan Harris Jr. (3) fights for a ball with Indiana guard Xavier Johnson (0) during the first half on Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022 at Allen Fieldhouse.

Currently ranked eighth overall in KenPom.com’s defensive efficiency metric — and climbing — the Kansas men’s basketball team is tracking toward a top-10 finish in that category for just the second time in the past seven seasons.

But while these Jayhawks have all of the defensive potential in the world — led by two elite, front-line defenders in Dajuan Harris Jr. and Kevin McCullar Jr. — KU coach Bill Self said Tuesday there’s still plenty of room for this group to improve before he places them among the best defensive teams he’s had at Kansas.

“We’re certainly better now than what we were a month ago,” Self said of the fourth-ranked Jayhawks. “But when you start talking about some of the best teams we’ve had, gosh, we’ve been in the top 10 in the nation in field goal percentage defense 8-10 times since we’ve been here.”

This team, which will close out the early portion of its nonconference slate at 6 p.m. Thursday against Harvard at Allen Fieldhouse, is currently ranked 39th in the country in field goal percentage defense, holding opponents to 39.1% shooting through 11 games. No. 3 Houston leads the nation in field goal defense at 32.4%.

Although the Jayhawks have been vulnerable to dribble drives throughout the season, their field goal percentage allowed is made all the more impressive by the fact that this team, unlike many of Self’s teams in the past, does not have a true rim protector.

With the athletic and bouncy, 6-foot-7 KJ Adams playing most of the minutes at the 5, the Jayhawks are making up for their lack of size inside by creating havoc away from the rim. KU is tied for 24th nationally in steals per game and the Jayhawks are coming off of their best steals game (17 vs. Indiana) in more than a decade.

Harris and McCullar have been true artists in that department so far this season. But their ball pressure, along with KU’s willingness to trap in the post, also has allowed fellow-starters Jalen Wilson and Gradey Dick to jump into passing lanes with some regularity. That leads to steals and steals often lead to easy points in transition.

“I don’t know that we’ll ever have 17 steals again,” Self said Tuesday. “But you don’t get those if we’re not trapping the post, because everybody was flying around. … The one thing that I have noticed, whether the traps are great, whether our rotations are great, which they’re not yet, (is) we play at a much higher energy level when we’re trapping.”

After giving up 44% 3-point shooting to Tennessee and getting out-rebounded 30-17 in their only loss of the season thus far, the Jayhawks have responded with four dominant performances. Two came at home. One was on the road. And another was against a top-15 team.

That response to the loss to Tennessee has both the Jayhawks and their coaches feeling good about this team’s defensive trajectory, and that has led to them taking the court with more confidence each time out.

“Let’s not get carried away that this team is all this and all that yet, defensively,” Self said. “But I do think we’re gaining on it.”

Asked if the players have seen any signs of that from the coaches in practice or film sessions, sophomore guard Bobby Pettiford smiled.

“They give us a little credit,” Pettiford said. “They won’t give us too much. But the last few games, they’ve told us that we’re really guarding.”

Self said he’s fine with giving his players credit when they play well defensively, just as he’s OK with letting them know when they’re not.

“I’d like to think that I’m brutally honest with them,” he said. “If we’re bad, they know it. And if we’re good I tell them we’re good. Defensively, the other day we were good, but we still had 10 possessions where we were awful.”

Pettiford said the longer layoff between games in recent weeks has allowed them to study more and that work behind the scenes has shown up on game nights.

“Since that loss, we’ve been more locked in on (the scouting report),” he said. “I feel like in the Tennessee game we might’ve got a little lazy, but these last few games we’ve just kind of locked in, we’ve studied every guy for days and days and we’ve had a week to prep for it.”

Ever the perfectionist when it comes to coaching defense, Self said he will continue to emphasize the little details that turn a good defense into a great one in hopes of watching these Jayhawks take that next step when conference play rolls around.

Included among the areas of emphasis that will increase their chances of getting there are: better sorting in transition, quicker rotations in half-court sets and a continued desire to prevent easy baskets, control the defensive glass and take pride in making their opponent play bad.

“There’s a lot of things we can do to improve, but I do think we’re making progress,” Self said. “I want them to know that we’re making progress, and I also want them to know that it’s actually a fun way to play, when we’re turned up like that. And I think they’re getting that.”