A year ago, during the week-long break after the Pac-12 tournament, Colorado women’s basketball coach JR Payne spent some time studying potential opponents for the NCAA Tournament.
“Then it was completely different than what was projected,” she said. “So I don’t think I’ll do that.”
The Buffs (23-8) are a lock to make the NCAA Tournament for the second year in a row – something that hasn’t been done at CU since a four-year run from 2001-04. Seemingly every day, the Buffs are projected to play someone different in the first round (ESPN’s latest bracketology has CU as a No. 5 seed playing Horizon League champ Cleveland State).
Payne and her staff have plenty to focus on internally, however.
“I would rather watch our film,” she said. “If we could get this much better in a certain area, I’d rather focus on that.”
CU certainly has areas in which it can improve after a disappointing 61-49 loss to Washington State in the Pac-12 semifinals on Friday in Las Vegas.
“Even if we’d played the best game of the year, there’s always ways that you can be better,” Payne said. “But definitely when you don’t have the best game of the year, you’re thankful for another opportunity to fix those things and be ready for the next one.”
CU’s first order of business after Friday’s loss was to rest. The Buffs are relatively healthy, but Payne gave the players three full days off before gathering again Tuesday for a light shoot-around and film session.
“It’s not just the game minutes, it’s the practice, and it’s a really long season,” Payne said. “I think being able to have three days completely off and then a fourth day where you’re really just shooting and you’re not really doing anything that impacts your body is important.”
Just as important as the physical rest is the mental re-set.
“I think this week also gives us the space to mentally feel good, emotionally feel good, physically feel good,” senior point guard Jaylyn Sherrod said. “So, we get to the point where you’re going to the NCAA just feeling good and confident.
“And I think going back and seeing where we have been successful over the year is always good too, because you can reset after a tough loss. We still are a good team, so I think that’s really the mentality going into this week.”
Ranked No. 20 nationally, the Buffs are a very good team, but have to get their offense back on track.
For most of the year, CU has been much more efficient offensively than a year ago. The Buffs struggled throughout their two games in the Pac-12 Tournament, however, and, outside of a dominant regular season finale against California, they haven’t connected well from 3-point range in the last five games.
“Defensively, we’re still pretty good, although there’s still a lot of things you turn on the film and we’re not doing what we’re supposed to do,” Payne said. “But offensively, we just need better execution and better pace. We’re watching possessions where four people know what we’re doing and one person doesn’t, or we’re taking too long to get into our actions and things like that.”
Payne said many of the issues can be controlled with better effort and discipline.
“While you don’t know who you’re gonna play, it’s a great opportunity to find ways that we can be better,” she said.
On Sunday, the Buffs will find out who and where they’ll play in the NCAA Tournament and they’re looking forward to the selection show.
“It’s always fun to see your name get called and the work you’ve been putting in over the year pay off,” Sherrod said. “I think it’s good for our team and it’s still a fairly fresh experience for our team, too.”
