With JR Payne as coach, the only direction for the CU Buffs women’s basketball program is up.

Payne, in her seventh season in Boulder, took a program that regularly finished in the bottom third of the Pac-12 to one that just finished two games behind Stanford at the top.

The Buffs head into this week’s Pac-12 Tournament as the No. 3 seed and on their first back-to-back NCAA Tournament berths in nearly 20 years. They’ll begin a quest for a first Pac-12 title Thursday night against the winner of No. 6 seed USC and No. 11 seed Oregon State.

The progress since Payne took over hasn’t happened overnight, however.

The Buffs reached the postseason in Payne’s first season when they reached the third round of the WNIT. Then came three straight years without a postseason appearance before returning to the WNIT two years ago.

The next season came the breakthrough.

CU opened 13-0 and reentered the national conversation with a trip to the Pac-12 semifinals and its first NCAA Tournament appearance in nine years.

This year has been much of the same. The Buffs have already matched last year’s win total of 22 heading into the conference tournament and current projections have them as a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament, meaning they would host the opening weekend in Boulder.

Two wins and a trip to the Pac-12 semifinals this week in Las Vegas may just be enough for CU to be a No. 4 seed when Selection Sunday comes on March 12.

All of that made last week’s double-overtime loss to Stanford in the penultimate game of the regular season hurt even more. Sure, the Buffs have beaten the Cardinal at home before — two years ago, to be exact, a few months before Stanford won an NCAA Championship.

This time around, it felt real. Even down a key starter, CU had multiple chances to knock off the Pac-12’s top team and one of the premiere programs in women’s basketball.

“We’re a really dangerous team,” Buffs senior guard Jaylyn Sherrod said. “I know the Stanford (loss), it was heartbreaking, but I think that all opened our eyes to be like, ‘We could be really good.’”

If all goes right this week in Las Vegas, the No. 3 seed CU will be on a collision course with Stanford in the championship game. They’ll likely have to get past the No. 2 seed, Utah, to do so and the teams split the season series with each team winning at home. But the Buffs may also face a challenge in their first game against No. 6 seed USC, which faces No. 11 seed Oregon State and recently came into Boulder and badly beat CU a month ago.

CU does head into the tournament coming off a convincing, 95-69 win over Cal on Senior Day this past weekend and with as good of a chance as anyone to hoist a trophy in a few days.

“We just want to compete — wherever we play, whoever we play, whenever we play — we just want to go at people,” Payne said.

Pair of Buffs earn All-Pac-12 honors

After 22 regular season wins and a third-place finish in the Pac-12 standings, Colorado was well-represented in the conference awards announced leading up to the conference tournament.

Seniors Quay Miller and Jaylyn Sherrod were named to the All-Pac-12 team, while junior Frida Formann and sophomore Aaronette Vonleh were given honorable mention honors. Vonleh, who transferred from Arizona in the offseason, was also named co-Most Improved Player of the Season.

Miller, who is in her second season with the program after transferring from Washington, was the Pac-12’s Sixth Player of the Year last season, but stepped into a starting role this year following the graduation of Mya Hollingshed. Miller leads the team in scoring at 14.1 points per game. She is also fifth in the Pac-12 in rebounding and is one of the Buffs’ better shooters, averaging over 35% from behind the 3-point line this season.

Sherrod has been a leader and a consistent force for Payne’s team since she arrived a few years ago. She’s the Pac-12 leader in assists, assists per game and steals per game and is averaging a career-high 11.1 points per game. Sherrod is also one of just four players in the country to average at least 10 points, 5 assists and 2 steals per game this season.