KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The process of keeping a program at a lofty level of competitiveness typically is done behind closed doors.
Itap the hours spent firing jumpers in empty gyms. Or the daily grind of sweat and strain put into the weight room. Get enough players on the same page in such endeavors, and basketball programs with strong foundations often can have smooth transitions even with major roster overhauls.
A shift in team leadership, though, is a more nuanced challenge. The vocal portion of leadership often is assumed by the more extroverted veterans on a team, but being the face of a program is a different standard. And that transition was on full display for the Colorado women’s basketball program at Big 12 Conference media day on Tuesday.
CU head coach JR Payne took the stage at T-Mobile Center alongside Jade Masogayo and Kennedy Sanders, two of the players tasked with providing the leadership on and off the floor for a program that has raised the standard over the past five years.
“We’ve had such great upper classmen over the years that have really helped kind of mold the younger ones as they’ve come along,” Payne said. “I think we do a lot of things as a team that prepare them for it. Like in our team-building in the summer, we do a lot of public speaking. Now, we do it with each other, but so many young people nowadays are not comfortable speaking in front of groups. We develop them in some of those areas in our own walls.
“We tell them how important it is to know what you’re talking about and different things like that. We talk to them about when you choose to be a member of the program, you’re representing all of us at all times. That could be a Friday night at the grocery store or Sunday morning at church.”
With the graduations of Frida Formann after an injury-shorted fifth season at CU last year, as well as point guard Kindyll Wetta, Payne no longer has any of the core players that led the way to three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances from 2022 to 2024. Yet not only did players like Formann, Wetta, Jaylyn Sherrod, Quay Miller and Mya Hollingshed lead the way on the floor, but they provided critical off-the-floor leadership, from utilizing their voices in the locker room to being able to address the media not only after big wins, but after agonizing defeats as well.
“I would definitely say it comes with experience,” said Masogayo, CU’s leading scorer and second-leading rebounder last year. “Playing college basketball as long as we have, we have a ton of experience that way. I feel like I can credit my coaches. They’ve really been harping on me to be more of a vocal leader and try to get out of my comfort zone and pave the way for this team. Because I’m a quiet player as well. I kind of lead by example.”
Tuesday’s event in Kansas City provided the unofficial jump-start to CU’s second season back in the Big 12. Like last year, the Buffs added a transfer with Big 12 experience, this time with former Kansas State guard Zyanna Walker. Because of the imbalanced schedule of a 16-team league, many of the Big 12 road destinations will be new once again this year, and Payne learned with former Iowa State forward Nyamer Diew and former Oklahoma State forward Lior Garzon last year that insider knowledge can be more valuable in terms of what to expect logistically in various arenas than any schematic info that player might be able to pass along.
“One of the biggest things we had to adjust to was having the two days in between (games),” Payne said. “We were used to the Friday-Sunday (in the Pac-12), which set a pretty good rhythm. But that was really different and that took us a little while to get used to. We have a good understanding now of when we need to start focusing on our opponents, when we can focus more on ourselves and things like that.”
