BOULDER — JR Payne and the Colorado women’s basketball program is in a familiar spot from this time last year.

The Buffaloes are welcoming 10 new players into the fold, although they’re no longer coming off three-straight trips to the NCAA Tournament.

Payne’s squad was about as ‘down the middle’ as it gets last season. While managing injuries and inconsistent play, CU finished ninth in its first season back in the Big 12 Conference with a 9-9 record in conference games, ranking ninth in the conference in both offense and defense.

It wasn’t close to the standard that had been set during the Jaylyn Sherrod era in the early part of the decade where a fast-paced offense and tenacious defense allowed the Buffs to join the tier of elite teams in the former Pac-12. 

That’s why this spring, ahead of her 10th season in Boulder, Payne and her staff were more deliberate about who they brought into the program knowing it was going to be another offseason of roster turnover.

“This past spring, more than any spring (previously), we were very, very intentional about the types of players and young women we were recruiting to the program,” Payne said. “We had a little more runway as far as what we knew we needed. The year before, we had some players that had thought they would stay and then at the last minute didn’t stay and so we ended up in a position where it was like, we need this, we need that and it was a little bit rushed.”

Identifying and developing talent has never been an issue for Payne during her tenure and because of some of the key players that drove the program’s rise to a top five ranking nationally, there was a bit of an assumption that everyone the Buffs were bringing in had a certain love for the game. Last year’s team proved that wasn’t the case — and it altered the way CU went about signing transfers and freshmen players.

“There were specific questions and things we were looking for out of the portal this spring that were not necessarily basketball related,” Payne said. “It was really important to us to recruit players that love the game of basketball. It seems silly. You think everybody who’s playing at this level loves to hoop, but it’s not always the case.”

Among the 10 newcomers are five freshmen and several could play big roles immediately, most notably guard Erianna Gooden and forwards Logyn Greer and Jade Crook.

There’s also a common theme among some of the portal additions as Zyanna Walker (Kansas State), Anaëlle Dutat (Rhode Island) and Desiree Wooten (North Texas) all earned some kind of all-defense honors at their previous stops.

“We definitely wanted to bolster our backcourt with some athleticism and some defensive prowess,” Payne said. “The fact that (Dutat), (Walker) and (Wooten) are all-conference players just turned out to be a blessing that we didn’t necessarily know we needed.”

But the Buffs will likely only go as far as their star, Jade Masogayo, can take them.

The senior forward led the team in scoring last year in her first year with the program following a transfer from Missouri State and she has quickly become the face of this year’s team, spending a good chunk of her spring helping the coaches recruit players out of the portal while working on her own game.

“Even from the end of last season, Jade Masogayo has taken a tremendous amount of ownership of who we are going to be going forward,” Payne said. “She was a phenomenal recruiter this past spring. Really, really invested in the type of players we were recruiting, the type of people that she and we wanted to bring into our program. 

“She really wants to have a great senior year, as any senior would, and knows that she’s a great player and is gonna be a contributor, but she also wanted to play with great talent and great teammates.”

Masogayo is the Buffs’ only representative on the preseason all-Big 12 team, but individual accolades have never been the biggest indicator for success. 

Yes, as their careers progressed, the likes of Sherrod, Quay Miller and others became more well-known as CU steadily climbed the rankings, but the formula for success in Boulder remains the same for Payne, now somehow 10 years into her Buffs tenure.

Even as the gap between the haves and the have nots increases in college athletics — no more so than in women’s sports — Payne still believes that, with this team, she has everything she needs to win at CU.

“There’s nobody in the world that wants us to be successful more than myself and our staff and Rick George and our players,” Payne said. “I think a lot of the things we need to do to get back to competing for the very top spot are the same things we did when we first got here. It’s culture, it’s cohesiveness, it’s understanding our identity and leaning into that. Definitely, there is an outside piece to it, but it’s also a lot on us to make sure that ourselves and our players are really bought into that.”

King’s CU Buffs women’s basketball team predictions

Finish: 6th in Big 12, NCAA Tournament at-large bid

Team MVP: Jade Masogayo

Top defender: Jade Masogayo

Impact newcomer: Anaëlle Dutat

2025-26 CU Buffs women’s basketball schedule

Thursday: vs. New Mexico (6 p.m., ESPN+)

Nov. 12: at Louisville (5 p.m., ACC Network)

Nov. 16: vs. Portland State (1 p.m., ESPN+)

Nov. 18: vs. Boise State (7 p.m., ESPN+)

Nov. 22: vs. UT Arlington at Hawaii North Shore Showcase in Laie, Oahu (7 p.m., BallerTV)

Nov. 24: vs. VCU at Hawaii North Shore Showcase in Laie, Oahu (5:30 p.m., BallerTV)

Nov. 25: vs. Texas A&M at Hawaii North Shore Showcase in Laie, Oahu (5 p.m., BallerTV)

Nov. 30: vs. Montana State (1 p.m., ESPN+)

Dec. 2: vs. College of Charleston (7 p.m., ESPN+)

Dec. 7: vs. Wyoming (1 p.m., ESPN+)

Dec. 14: vs. Miami (Ohio) (1 p.m., ESPN+)

Dec. 16: vs. Northern Colorado (7 p.m., ESPN+)

Dec. 21: at Arizona State (5 p.m., ESPN+)

Dec. 31: vs. Arizona (7 p.m., ESPN+)

Jan. 3: vs. Cincinnati (1 p.m., ESPN+)

Jan. 8: at Baylor (6 p.m., ESPN+)

Jan. 11: at Oklahoma State (12 p.m., ESPN+)

Jan. 14: vs. Iowa State (7 p.m., ESPN+)

Jan. 18: at Central Florida (12 p.m., ESPN+)

Jan. 25: vs. Oklahoma State (1 p.m., ESPN+)

Jan. 29: at Kansas State (5:30 p.m., ESPN+)

Feb. 1: at Kansas (1 p.m., ESPN+)

Feb. 4: vs. West Virginia (7 p.m., ESPN+)

Feb. 8: vs. TCU (1 p.m., ESPN+)

Feb. 11: at Houston (5:30 p.m., ESPN+)

Feb. 14: vs. BYU (1 p.m., ESPN+)

Feb. 17: at Arizona (6 p.m., ESPN+)

Feb. 21: vs. Texas Tech (7 p.m., ESPN+)

Feb. 24: vs. Utah (7 p.m., ESPN+)

Feb. 28: at BYU (2 p.m., ESPN+)

March 4-8: Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City, Mo.