The desire to make an impact on her new team drove Claire O’Connor last fall.
Her feet, however, had other ideas.
Plantar fasciitis in both feet turned the 2025-26 season into a lost year for O’Connor, but the veteran guard is eager to make up for it next season with the Colorado women’s basketball team.
O’Connor, who transferred to CU from Gonzaga last summer, recently announced her decision to remain with the Buffs next year.
“Even though I was hurt, I actually had a really good year in a lot of ways and I kind of wanted to build off of that,” said O’Connor, a 6-foot guard. “And, I believe in what we’re doing here, so, yeah, I wanted to come back to that.”
O’Connor believed in the Buffs enough a year ago to make a change. The former Lakeside (Washington) High School star played two seasons at Gonzaga, averaging 7.6 points and 3.5 rebounds during the 2024-25 season while hitting 40.8% of her 3-pointers (49 of 120).
The Buffs expected her to be a top 3-point threat last season, and she got off to a great start. She had 11 points, five rebounds and three assists in the Buffs’ season-opening rout of New Mexico on Nov. 6.
O’Connor, who will be a fourth-year junior next season, played in just seven more games — although just 10 total minutes in her last three appearances — before shutting down for the season.
“It started in my right foot,” she said. “I really wanted to push through it; played on it for like four months. I got it in the other foot, too, and then it just kept getting worse, started tearing. I tried all the intermediate treatments and just tried to come back at one point in January, and I just couldn’t do it. Nothing worked.”
She has since had procedures done on both feet and is feeling “so much better,” she said.
“I’m very excited,” said O’Connor, who averaged 3.1 points and 2.0 rebounds in her eight games. “Itap the best. I mean, even outside of basketball, just like not being in pain all the time has been so great, and I’m just excited.”
So is CU head coach JR Payne, who is looking forward to having a healthy O’Connor in the mix next year. O’Connor is one of seven players back from a CU team that went to the NCAA Tournament.
“She went through a lot with both feet this year,” Payne said. “As long as she’s really smart about how she progresses — which I know she will be, because she’s a smart kid — we’re expecting her to make a full recovery and be even better than she was before.”
O’Connor was pretty good before the injury as a full-time starter at Gonzaga, helping the Bulldogs go 24-10 and reach the quarterfinals of the 2025 WBIT (knocking out CU along the way). She was making an impact with the Buffs before her feet became an issue.
“Definitely the ability to shoot the three is going to be huge for us, to be able to stretch the defense,” Payne said. “I think she can be a good rebounding guard because she’s strong, and she’s gotten significantly stronger since she got here, and she has good size on the perimeter. And before she got hurt, she was really working on being able to attack the paint a little bit, add a little bit more variety to her game, and so I think she’ll continue to do that.”
While O’Connor didn’t play much this past year, she has enjoyed her time in Boulder and said being a part of the women’s basketball program is “pretty special.” She also learned a lot about the Buffs’ scheme by observing and is eager to get back on the court with her team, which includes six newcomers.
“I’m very motivated,” she said. “I know what I’m capable of and I just want to contribute in whatever way I can.
“I feel like I have a lot to contribute to the team, with shooting and spacing the floor and just being able to be a good teammate, be a leader and just play really hard and contribute all around.”
