CU's 2023-2024 NCAA Women’s Basketball season opener saw the No. 20-ranked Buffaloes matched up with last year’s champions and the current No. 1-ranked team in LSU, with the Buffs beating Coach Kim Mulkey's highly favored squad by a score of 92-78.
It was the first time since 1995 that a reigning champ or top-ranked team lost a season opener.
In doing so, LSU etched itself into the wrong side of the NCAA history books, while CU got to introduce its women's team to the entire sports world.
“Part of the reason that we wanted to play the LSU game is that we don't often have exposure to that type of national spotlight," Coach JR Payne tells Westword. "We have some of the most remarkable young women I've ever been around, and I wanted them to have access to that spotlight. I really want the world to know how cool and awesome they are.”
Payne’s words hold a promise: This team isn’t afraid of any stage or spotlight, and it's ready to show why it deserves to be there game after game.
Despite all the hype surrounding the CU football team after Deion Sanders took over as head coach, that squad hasn’t been as successful on the field as it has off of it. The women’s basketball team could prove the opposite, as a squad with much less hype, but a bigger chance to dominate on the court.LS-Who?#GeauxBuffs pic.twitter.com/sLfQuNQKv1
— Colorado Women's Basketball 🦬 (@CUBuffsWBB) November 7, 2023
For those unfamiliar with the Buffaloes' women's hoop stars, we've compiled some information to help you out:
Spicy sixteen
Since the 2004 season, CU's women's team had only made it into the NCAA tournament once. That changed after the 2022 season, when it got to go dancing but lost in the first round.In 2023, things looked much different.
The team earned a 6-seed and managed to make it to the Sweet 16; it was knocked out by Iowa, which would go on to lose to LSU in the championship game. During the run, the CU players showed they’re not intimidated by ranks or reputations when they bested 3-seed Duke to reach that third round.
“I love hostile environments,” standout guard Jaylyn Sherrod said at the time. “I love being the bad guy. The team feeds off that, too.”
Sherrod lived up to that again against LSU — tallying nineteen points, eight rebounds and six assists in Monday night's win.
A fearless roster
Sherrod has been excellent in her last four seasons with Colorado, returning for a fifth season this year as a graduate student to get a second master's degree. She’s joined by many other talented players with experience, but none of them came to the school as highly touted prospects, which just means they're even more competitive.“On our team, we have a lot of people that are capable of having twenty-plus points on any given night, but no one cares who has the shine or who gets the shots or the rebounds," Payne says. "It's very unselfish, and they're just ultimately very competitive. They're very tough and totally fearless, like they don't care who they play, when they play, where they play. They just love to compete, and it's just a really incredible group to coach.”
Also shining against the Tigers this week was senior Frida Formann, who played with Denmark’s national team over the summer. She ended up scoring 27 points and sank seven three-pointers.
“When I'm in that mood, it's hitting my hands, I'm just shooting it,” she told the media after the win. “With this team, too, we know who's getting hot, so I just know that the ball is going to find me and my shot is going to be there.”Frida Formann tonight:
— Women’s Hoopz (@WBBWorldWide) November 7, 2023
27 PTS | 5 REB | 5 AST | 7-11 3PT
#20 Colorado takes down #1 LSU 92-78! #NCAAW | @CUBuffsWBB pic.twitter.com/QQWNVwpTE0
Center Aaronette Vonleh scored another 24 of the Buffaloes' 92 points, which didn’t come as a surprise to her coach, who names her as one of those special talents who can drop twenty every night.
Behind Vonleh's on-court dominance is a quiet humor that her coach says she loves.
“She's very quiet but quietly hilarious," Payne tells Westword.
Rounding out the starting lineup is forward Quay Miller — who, along with Sherrod, was named to the Naismith Player of the Year watch list before the season — and guard Tameiya Sadler. Payne says the team is high-achieving when it comes to academics, with multiple players following in Sherrod's footsteps and getting their undergraduate degrees in a span of three years, then working toward a master's in their fourth year.
"Why isn't this group afraid of anything?" fans might ask. Because the coaching staff challenges them every day to do things they don't think they can do, Payne says, then shows them why and how they can.
"That builds a level of resiliency," she declares. "When you're constantly overcoming things that you don't think you can do, it creates a sense of fearlessness. It creates a sense of, 'I can do anything, we can do anything.'"
The school is getting into it
The Colorado Men’s Basketball team also kicked off its season with a win on November 6 in Boulder, beating Towson 75-57 behind a 22-point performance from guard KJ Simpson. After the game, the school put the women’s game up on the jumbotron at the CU Events Center for everyone to watch.When the buzzer went off proclaiming the Colorado women victorious, the crowd at the CUEC was thrilled.
Sanders, too, spoke highly of the team during his November 7 media appearance; his daughter Shelomi Sanders is on the team, but didn’t play in the LSU victory.CROWD IS ON THEIR FEET IN COLORADO AS THE CU BUFFS WIN IN VEGAS
— Malaina Humphreys (@mmalainaa) November 7, 2023
THE BUFFS TAKE DOWN REIGNING NCAA CHAMPS THE LSU TIGERS 92-78#SkoBuffs pic.twitter.com/VjQ0BZXiJy
"They're coming, and we should have played their theme music because they're balling," Coach Sanders said. "We cannot underestimate what they just did. That was huge for the program, huge for the university and women's basketball. Hats off to them. I wish I could've been there to witness it myself, but it was a blessing."
The entire school's athletic success has Payne fired up: In addition to supporting Sanders's squad, she is thrilled for the women's soccer team, which just made it to the NCAA tournament, and is rooting for the volleyball team to do the same in the coming days.
"We're so proud to wear Colorado across our chests," Payne says. "We want everybody to win."
Final Four watch incoming
After the November 6 upset, NBA legend (and LSU alum) Shaquille O’Neal and WNBA great Candace Parker joined the Buffaloes in the locker room to congratulate them on the win.Both work for TNT, which aired the game, and Parker currently plays in Sin City for the two-time defending champs, the Las Vegas Aces. O’Neal greeted CU and told everyone they did a great job and wished them luck with their season. Parker praised the players, too, and went so far as to put them on Final Four notice.
“I mean everybody,” Parker said, shaking her head in wonder. “Hope to see you at the Final Four.”Big man, bigger win 🦬🫡#GoBuffs // #HOFSeries pic.twitter.com/99Ipwh51Wg
— Colorado Women's Basketball 🦬 (@CUBuffsWBB) November 7, 2023
Pretty big words from one of the greatest of all time in the sport — and a challenge that CU gladly accepts.
"It was incredible to meet both of them," Payne says. "I grew up loving and admiring both on the court. ... Obviously, we would love to compete in a Final Four. We're trying to get better and better every single day so that an opportunity like that might present itself."
CU was ranked No. 20 coming into the season, with some projecting it to achieve a top-ten ranking after the LSU victory.
“We just made our minds up that no matter what, we were going to go out there and compete, and we weren't going to lose,” Sherrod said to reporters after the game. “Across the board, coaches, teammates, family, fans — everybody believed that with us. To be honest, that's all we ever needed on this team. When we make our minds up and we believe in ourselves, I think we can truly be unstoppable.”
The next team slated to try to stop the women's stampede is Le Moyne College, which will come to Boulder on November 8. On Saturday, November 11, the team will play Oklahoma State, which Payne notes is actually the first Big 12 matchup the school will play since it announced that it's returning to that conference and leaving the Pac-12.
Despite the high ceiling, Payne wants more people to come to home games this year, and she's currently working on strategies to encourage them to do so.
"We're obviously a really good team and we're fun to watch," she says. "We've got to get people to the games, so whatever we've got to do to make that happen, that's my goal."
A statement win to start the season doesn't hurt.
