Where Does the 2023-24 Basketball Season Rank in BYU History?

There are two ways to process what happened with the 2023-2024 BYU men’s basketball team.

On one hand, the Big 12 Coaches’ Poll ranked BYU 13th out of 14 teams to start the season. It certainly was understandable, as BYU was coming off of a very lackluster season with much lesser competition in the West Coast Conference. No way they come into the toughest conference in the land and play...better, right?

To Mark Pope’s credit, the team rallied around the disrespect and piled up solid win after solid win. It started with a big win over San Diego State in Provo, who is now in the Sweet 16 and coming off of a run to the national title game last April.

On Thanksgiving weekend, BYU then beat yet another team now in the Sweet 16, in NC State, winning the “Vegas Showdown.”

BYU entered Big 12 play at 12-1. They then won 10 Big 12 games including a win at Allen Fieldhouse against Kansas. They eventually logged three ranked wins within conference play. Their four wins against separate ranked teams overall is a program record.

The win over then-No. 7 ranked Kansas in one of the hardest venues to win for a road team is significant. Despite Kansas being “down” for their lofty standards, BYU was still their lone home loss (15-1).

They also notched a win in the Big 12 Tournament, over UCF.

Against preseason expectations, Mark Pope’s squad shattered the roof.

Then, the second way of thinking is, “it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.”

Despite a thrilling regular season, most of the time, your team is judged by how they do in the postseason, fair or not. The expectation going into the tournament was- just win at least one game, which would be their first win in the Round of 64 since Jimmer’s senior year in 2011.

Then, if they wanted to stamp themselves as perhaps one of the best in program history, they needed to at least make the Sweet 16.

However, that did not happen. BYU looked ill-prepared for 11-seed Duquesne’s tenacious defense. They looked flustered at the beginning of the game and never fully recovered, despite a heroic effort by Jaxson Robinson. BYU fell victim to the dreaded March Madness upset, 71-67.

The next question is, where does this leave this year’s team against BYU’s program history?

Like my sophomore geometry class, we should grade these tests on a curve. BYU just finished their most difficult schedule in program history, with a sparkling 23-11 record. Teams like Houston, Kansas, Baylor, and Iowa State were in the same conference. Gone are the days of playing Pepperdine, Portland, and Santa Clara.

However, it’s impossible to ignore BYU faltering yet again in the NCAA tournament with an early exit.

Where does it rank?

Let’s start with the obvious ones. 1981 is the greatest season in BYU history to this point. It’s not because they won the most games over the season. It actually ranks sixth in winning percentage in program history since 1960. But it’s how they finished. Wooden Award winner Danny Ainge went coast-to-coast to beat Notre Dame in the final seconds of their Sweet 16 matchup in the most dramatic moment in BYU basketball history.

That sent BYU to their first (and to this point, only) trip to the Elite 8 since the tournament expanded the field to 32 in 1975.

Since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, BYU has made it to the “second weekend” of the tournament, AKA the Sweet 16, once.

That year, of course, was the Year of the Jimmer. Jimmer Fredette took the country by storm in 2011, leading the entire country in points per game. He eventually won the Naismith Award as the country’s best overall player.

They beat San Diego State, who spent a chunk of that season inside the top five of the AP poll, twice. Including once at the hostile Viejas Arena in front of a frenzied, venomous crowd.

That Cougars team made it to the Sweet 16 after beating Gonzaga in the Round of 32. They eventually fell to Florida in overtime with a trip to the Elite 8 on the line.

That team finished with an astonishing 32 wins, the most in program history.

The 2009-2010 squad was also a solid team that likely deserves the third spot. They won 30 games including a big win in the NCAA Tournament over Florida, who was just a few seasons removed from back-to-back national titles. They fell to 2-seed Kansas State in Round Two. But it meant BYU advanced to the Second Round for the first time since 1993.

In 1987-88, BYU went 26-6 including a win over Charlotte in the first round of the newly expanded field to 64. BYU also won first round tournament games in 1991 and 1993.

That being said, it must be taken into account that BYU played in the toughest basketball conference in America this season by virtually every metric. They finished that gauntlet with a winning record and earned a No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

That’s only the fourth time in program history that BYU earned a six seed or better since the field expanded in 1985.

Basketball-Reference’s “Simple Rating System” metric, is, by their definition, “a rating that takes into account average point differential and strength of schedule. The rating is denominated in points above/below average, where zero is average. Non-Division I games are excluded from the ratings.”

By that metric, BYU’s 2023-2024 season ranks No. 1 in their entire program history. That takes into account their toughest strength of schedule in program history as well.

Obviously, NCAA Tournament success should be weighted more heavily, giving the 1981 squad the crown.

Given the highest degree of difficulty BYU ever faced with the Big 12 Conference schedule, against very low preseason expectations, with a record four wins against ranked programs, this BYU squad should be considered a top five team in program history. There is a strong case it for it to be No. 4.