Throughout much this season, JR Payne has had the Colorado women’s basketball team in the top 10 rankings and in contention for a Pac-12 title.
On Wednesday, Payne was named one of 15 candidates for the Werner Ladder Naismith Women’s College Coach of the Year Award by the Atlanta Tipoff Club.
Payne’s Buffaloes are currently ranked No. 11 in the Associated Press poll – one point out of the No. 10 spot – with a 20-5 record, including 10-4 in the Pac-12. CU was in the top 10 each of the 14 weeks before this week.
Ranked No. 20 to start the season, CU upset then-No. 1 and defending national champion LSU 92-78 in the season opener on Nov. 6 and vaulted 15 spots to No. 5 the next week. That was the first of three wins against top-10 teams so far this season, the most in one season in CU history.
Although the Buffs have currently lost two in a row, they are still in contention for the regular season Pac-12 title, sitting two games behind league-leading Stanford with four games to play.
Four other Pac-12 coaches are on the watch list: Cori Close of UCLA, Lindsay Gottlieb of USC, Scott Rueck of Oregon State and Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer. The list of candidates for the coach of the year award will be narrowed down again on March 14.
This is the second year in a row that Payne has been on the late season watch list. She led the Buffs to a 25-9 record and a trip to the Sweet 16 last year.
CU will visit No. 7 USC on Friday (8 p.m. MT, Pac-12 Network) and No. 12 UCLA on Monday (7 p.m., ESPN2).
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