Our Pac-12 Friday miniseries takes a funny turn, as the “third-best” winning percentage for basketball while a member of the league belongs to the Colorado Buffaloes. The 13-year stint in the conference has produced a .613 winning percentage, although the school has received just 5 March Madness invites in that time period while winning a singular conference tournament championship. That’s the way the world turns, eh?

5.  2023

This team reached the second round of the NIT before finishing 18-17, which included an 8-12 mark in league play. The Buffaloes played the No. 34 SOS in the nation, which explains its presence on this sabermetric list despite the middling win percentage. The Buffs did post wins over 2 ranked teams early in the season (Tennessee, Texas A&M), but they went 0-4 against ranked teams in conference play to fizzle out.

4. 2013

These Buffaloes reached the NCAA Tournament, although they did lose in the first round as a 10 seed after finishing 10-8 in the conference standings for fifth place. Overall, the 21-12 record and the No. 18 SOS helped Colorado earn a No. 44 SRS ranking. The team was briefly ranked in the Associated Press poll early on, and a 4-4 record against ranked schools really boosted the overall profile. This was a good season.

3. 2016

This time, Colorado was an 8 seed in the NCAAs, but it lost to Connecticut in the first round to finish 22-12 overall (10-8, fifth in league). With just a 1-5 record against ranked teams, the Buffaloes struggled to win the big games as they finished No. 49 in the SRS rankings against the No. 51 SOS. They started 11-1, but the team came back to reality as 8 of the 12 losses came by single digits. The Buffs just couldn’t get over that hump.

2. 2020

In the March cut short by Covid, the team was finished in the league tournament anyway after an opening-round loss to end the season with a 21-11 mark, again going 10-8 in conference games for fifth place one more time. The Buffaloes were a ranked team most of the season, but losing their last 5 consecutive games fixed that situation very quickly. They finished No. 35 in the SRS, playing against the No. 40 SOS, overall.

1. 2021

A 23-9 overall record including a 14-6 finish in conference play, good enough for third place. Colorado ended up No. 22 in the AP poll and No. 9 in the SRS rankings, overall—easily the best team on this list. All this earned the team a 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament, but after beating Georgetown in the first round, the Buffs ran up against No. 14 Florida State in the second round and lost badly. Bummer finish to a great year.