There is sadness, of course, for the Colorado women’s basketball team as it says goodbye to some seniors who were foundational players in the rise of the program.
The emotions displayed by head coach JR Payne after her team’s loss to Iowa in the Sweet 16 on Saturday made it clear it won’t be easy to see seniors Jaylyn Sherrod, Quay Miller, Maddie Nolan, Charlotte Whittaker and Sophie Gerber go.
That group played a combined 411 games for the Buffs, led by Sherrod and Whittaker, who each spent five years with the program. Three of those seniors – Sherrod, Miller and Nolan – were starters this year.
However, Payne also feels excitement for the future, as the Buffs are in the early stages of reconstructing their roster ahead of the 2024-25 campaign.
“It’s kind of like leaving the Pac-12 (this summer),” Payne said. “You’re so sad that it’s over, but of course, there’s a sense of newness and excitement about what is the Big 12 gonna feel like? It’s the same thing with a team. I don’t know that we’d ever get over missing some of these seniors, but definitely, I think it’ll be a new team, even with (several players) coming back.
“I think when you’ve had such strong dominant personalities for so long, it’s really going to be kind of cool to see how these others emerge as leaders and as vocal presence and I think all of that is certainly going to be fun.”
In addition to the five seniors who are departing, reserves Brianna McLeod and Mikayla Johnson have put their names into the transfer portal. In this new era, where there’s more player movement than ever before, there could be others moving on, as well.
Three players on this year’s roster – Frida Formann, Tameiya Sadler and Sara-Rose Smith – all have the option of returning for a fifth season of college basketball because the NCAA granted all players from 2020-21 a bonus year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Formann, a starting guard and the program’s all-time leader in 3-pointers, announced Wednesday that she will be back. Payne expects Smith to return, as well, while Sadler is undecided. Sadler and Smith were both key contributors off the bench this season.
Starting center Aaronette Vonleh and reserve Kindyll Wetta – a starting-caliber point guard who came off the bench behind Sherrod – are expected to return.
In a way, it’s an end of an era for CU, particularly because Sherrod has been the face of the program. But Payne likes the foundation of talent expected to return.
“As far as numbers, like points and assists, etc., returning Frida, Kindyll, Netty, Sara, all of that, that’s a lot of production coming back,” Payne said.
Still, Payne – along with every other coach in the country – is well into the process of evaluating transfers that could help the program. There are already more than 1,000 players in the transfer portal, including some intriguing players the Buffs have gone against in the Pac-12.
First team All-Pac-12 players Charlisse Leger-Walker (Washington State) and Talia von Oelhoffen (Oregon State) are in the portal, as well as Oregon’s Chance Gray and Grace VanSlooten, both ESPN top-15 recruits in 2022.
“I think every team, as soon as their season ends, it just goes into a different part of the season where you’re trying to figure out where everyone is and for the rest of their career, whether that’s one year or three years,” Payne said. “What’s the best fit for them, whether that’s here or somewhere else? And there’s just so many more moving parts now than there used to be.”
That includes some uncomfortable conversations with players that are transferring out, but Payne said it’s just part of the process.
“It’s an uncomfortable thing but it also is our new normal,” she said.
With that new normal, Payne and her staff are embracing the excitement of what’s next. Key players are moving on and the Buffs don’t yet know who will be on their roster next year, but Payne knows the program goal – returning to the NCAA Tournament – will remain intact.
“The standard is the standard as far as work ethic and competing and all of those things,” she said. “So I don’t think any expectation would change at all. It just is going to sound different or feel different, but it doesn’t mean it can’t be just as great or even better.”
Notable
Payne, who was rewarded with a new contract and hefty raise after a Sweet 16 run in 2023, earned $165,000 in bonuses this season for CU reaching 21 wins in the regular season and getting back to the Sweet 16.
