In her career as a head coach, JR Payne has proven she can turn a program around.
She took the Southern Utah women’s basketball team from nine wins the year before she got there to 23 by her fifth year. She took Santa Clara from 10 wins before she arrived to 23 by her second year. And, she took Colorado from seven wins before her arrival to 22 by her sixth season.
Now eight years in, Payne has led the Buffs to three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, including the Sweet 16 in each of the past two years.
Going into her ninth season with the Buffaloes, however, Payne now faces a new challenge. For the first time in her career, she must rebuild the same program for the second time.
“I think that’s just another one of the new opportunities in front of us this year,” Payne said. “I think we’ve recruited the right players – kids that want to be a part of a team, that want to work hard, that want to be a great teammate and build that cohesiveness.”
Although CU’s three-year NCAA tourney run hasn’t come with all the same players, the Buffs have typically returned the bulk of their core. This past season, when they went 24-10, the Buffs had four starters and eight rotational players back from the previous year.
Payne has gone into each of the previous six seasons at CU with at least two returning starters (usually three or more) and at least six returning rotational players.
Next season, the Buffs will have just one returning starter (guard Frida Formann) and only three rotational players coming back (Formann and guards Sara-Rose Smith and Kindyll Wetta).
Of the 14 players on the roster, 10 will be new to the program and another (redshirt freshman Kennedy Sanders) has yet to play a game for the Buffs.
With a new roster and CU leaving the Pac-12 Conference to join the Big 12, next season will be completely different. Formann told BuffZone this spring she’s excited about the changes and Payne echoed that sentiment.
“A hundred percent; I’m very, very excited,” she said. “I’m also very appreciative of the previous era (with Jaylyn Sherrod, Quay Miller and others). Frida and Kindyll were part of that, but that group that was here for a long time.”
Payne believes it took “a special mindset and a special type of group” to lift CU from the bottom of the Pac-12 to near the top by the time they were done. But, it takes a totally different type of mindset keep the Buffs on the winning track.
“I feel like we are now that team that’s been to back-to-back Sweet Sixteens and it’s time to go to the next step,” Payne said. “What’s next for the development and trajectory of this program? This group that we have here is that group that’s built for that.
“Maybe this group couldn’t have done what the last group did, as far as coming from 12th place, but we’re going to really challenge this group to now take the labor and blood, sweat and tears of what was and now build upon what they built.”
There is a lot of change around the program this offseason, but the Buffs still have Payne and her staff leading the way. Payne has been a winner during her coaching career and is excited for the challenge to keep that going.
“Anytime there’s new – new conference, new players, new everything – it’s just an incredible opportunity,” Payne said. “Sometimes, opportunity is scary, but it’s also super exciting. We love who we signed. We love the leadership potential. We love the various skill sets; the length that we’ve added, holy cow. Lots of really exciting things. Now we just have to put it all together.”
Vols buy out deal
Who the new-look Buffs play is still up in the air, but they won’t play Tennessee.
The Volunteers, traditionally one of the top teams in the country, were slated to come to Boulder this next season to complete a home-and-home contract after CU visited Knoxville on Nov. 25, 2022.
Instead, the Vols chose to pay $50,000 to CU to buy out the contract and avoid the trip to Boulder. That home-and-home deal was set between Payne and former Vols coach Kellie Harper, who was fired after this past season. Kim Caldwell is the Vols’ new coach.
Overall, Payne said the Buffs are having “a very hard time” getting non-conference games for this next season.
“I think because we’ve had a lot of success, and we signed a really, really good class out of the portal,” Payne said. “Maybe people are … unsure about (the altitude) if they’re not used to it. I don’t know.”
The Buffs also don’t know details about their Big 12 schedule, other than it’ll be an 18-game slate. CU will play each of the other 15 teams at least once, including three teams that they’ll face twice.
