Jade Masogayo’s eyes lit up and she sat in amazement for a few seconds when Colorado’s name was announced during the NCAA Tournament selection show on Sunday.
She then stood up with a huge smile and yelled, “Oh my God! Letap go!”
Playing in the NCAA Tournament was the top goal for Masogayo before her college basketball career came to a close and now she’ll have that opportunity. The No. 10 seed in the Fort Worth 1 region, CU will face No. 7 seed Illinois on Saturday (7:30 p.m. MT, ESPN2) in Nashville.
“Itap very exciting,” Masogayo said. “I mean, I’ve been waiting the last four years for this opportunity, and so now that itap here, itap just a really great feeling for sure.”
CU will participate in March Madness for the fourth time in the last five years, but for most of the players, it will be a new experience. Of the 14 players on the roster, only three have been on teams that made the tournament before. For the rest, it’ll be a new experience.
“Itap so exciting,” CU head coach JR Payne said. “Last year when we missed the NCAA Tournament, that was one thing that Jade just talked about a lot. Like, ‘We gotta get to the tournament, we gotta get to the tournament.’ It was something that was really important for her and so itap really important for us, too.
“Of course, we always want to go, but for someone like Jade that was very loyal and stayed and committed to helping us recruit our team last spring, I think itap really special for her to now have earned this opportunity.”
A transfer from Missouri State two years ago, Masogayo had been extremely close before.
In the 2024 Missouri Valley Conference championship game, Missouri State lost to Drake, 76-75, on a buzzer beater. Last year, Masogayo and the Buffs were the first team out of the field, and one more win at any point probably would have been enough to get them in.
So, even though the Buffs seemed to be secure going into Sunday, she was nervous.
“I was just nervous in general,” she said. “Just kind of like good nerves, I would say, but just, like I said, hearing our name called was a great feeling.”
CU’s other senior, Anaelle Dutat, will be going for the first time, too. She spent the past three years at Rhode Island and came close in 2024, when the Rams lost in the conference title game.
Tabitha Betson hasn’t waited as long as Dutat and Masogayo, but the sophomore from Australia was ecstatic when CU got in. The sophomore has dreamed of playing in the NCAA Tournament since her childhood.
“I always wanted to play college basketball from when I was like six,” she said. “I don’t know if I saw it somewhere, I just decided that I wanted it, so like my whole life growing up I always thought about March Madness and always wanted to do it. Itap not very common in Australia, but like I was locked in.
“I was kind of going to be happy no matter where we ended up in the seeding, but I’m so stoked and so excited.”
Zyanna Walker has had the opposite experience in her career. The junior guard will be going to the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time in four college seasons, and she’s done it with three different schools.
She was a part of Louisville’s Elite Eight run in 2023, and went to the tournament in 2024 and 2025 with Kansas State, helping the Wildcats to the Sweet 16 last year.
“Oh yeah, I’m super excited,” she said of going back. “Like, thatap the goal — that was our goal since the summer, so to accomplish that, it really means a lot for this team.”
The only other player on the roster who has participated in an NCAA Tournament is guard Claire O’Connor, with Gonzaga in 2024. Guard Kennedy Sanders was with CU in 2024 when it reached the Sweet 16, but she redshirted that year. O’Connor and Sanders are both out for the season with injuries.
Notable
While Dutat and Masogayo didn’t make it to March Madness with their previous schools, both of their former teams made it this year. Rhode Island is an 11 seed and Missouri State a 16 seed. … Payne will receive a $25,000 bonus for taking the Buffs to the NCAA Tournament. She’ll earn another $30,000 bonus if the Buffs can beat Illinois and get to the second round. … CU went 7-6 this season vs. teams that are in the NCAA Tournament, while Illinois went 4-10 against the field.
