Buffs Keeping with Underdog Mentality

BOULDER — Colorado women's basketball enters the final week of the regular season in somewhat unfamiliar territory. The Buffaloes have positioned themselves for a first-round bye in next week's Pac-12 Tournament for the first time since 2014.

At 12-4 in Pac-12 play, Colorado is currently No. 3 in the standings. The Buffs, who host No. 3 Stanford (Thursday, 3 p.m. MT) and California (Saturday, Noon), can finish no worse than fourth in the standings and with some help across the league could get as high as the No. 2 seed and a split of a regular season title is not out of the realm of possibilities.

But the mindset for the Buffs has not changed all season. The team that was picked to finish eighth in the conference preseason voting, continues to play with that underdog mindset.

"We never want to get too big-headed," senior Quay Miller commented. "We learned our lesson after we beat UCLA and then lost to USC. We took a step back and tried to relax a little, but we need to be able to be a mature group and not take a step back and play to our full potential. Anytime we do take a step back, we come out with a loss. I think that each loss we have had, we have ground from and that always reminds us that no matter the number that is in front of our name, we are still the underdog. It took us a lot to get here and we still have a lot of work to do."

Another key factor in the success of the Buffs this season is the unselfish narrative that surrounds the team. Miller, Jaylyn Sherrod, Frida Formann and Aaronette Vonleh have all shared the title of "leading scorer' in 24 games of CU's 27 games. The Buffs have also won 25 consecutive games when collecting at least 17 assists.

"We are going to do whatever it takes to win," Miller added. "Last year we depended on a few players and when they did not show up, we did not know what to do. This year we are all trying to take over and whoever has the hot hand we will just keep feeding this person."

The Buffs have reemerged on the national stage in large part to the direction that head coach JR Payne has set. Colorado was never higher than 6th in the Pac-12 standings until last season's fifth-place finish. Payne, who was announced as one of 15 coaching candidates for the Werner Ladder Naismith Women's College Coach of the Year last week, has been able to push this program through some hard times to get to where the Buffs are now.

"It's a different mindset [from previous seasons]," Payne added. "I think I said this last spring that last year's team was the first team that I thought really believed we would win every single game. Before that, we wanted to win, we worked towards winning and we prepared to win, but we didn't really think from the head coach all the way through student managers that we were going to win every game. It's been cool to see that change. I think that's a winning mindset. I think we compete every single day to win every single game and it's neat to see that evolve. We recruit players with the understanding that we don't have a bunch of five-star All-Americans like most of our competitors in this conference. We recruit tough kids that want to work and that want to compete. They want to be an underdog that wants to fight, scrap and claw for everything that they get. It's cool to see people come to Colorado with that vision of being that team, and then making it come to fruition."

Senior Day on Saturday
CU closes out the regular season at home against California on Saturday. The game will be the last regular season contest for fifty-year senior Tayanna Jones. Jones, who graduated with her bachelor's degree last season has been working on her master's in organizational leadership this season. She has started 25 games this season and is averaging 5.1 points per game. Jones came to CU at the start of the 2020-21 season as a transfer from Georgetown.

The Buffs will honor Jones in a postgame ceremony on Saturday.

Both Thursday and Saturday's games will be on the Pac-12 Networks. Jenny Cavnar and Mary Murphy will have the call on Thursday. Cavnar and former Buff Kami Carmann Snyder will conclude the weekend on Saturday.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Frida Formann

Tayanna Jones

Quay Miller

Jaylyn Sherrod

Aaronette Vonleh