Buffs remain ranked No. 3 in AP Top 25
Colorado women’s basketball head coach JR Payne knew the importance of her team’s win against USC on Sunday.
“Huge,” she said.
But , Payne quickly added, “We just reset. It’s just, ‘Great, good win, go get some dinner and reset. Let’s figure out who we play next.’ That’s just our mindset. I think that’s part of what makes us good is that we don’t really dwell on anything too long.”
With that mindset, CU (16-2, 6-1 Pac-12) didn’t let one loss turn into two this past weekend, and because of that, the Buffs kept a prime spot in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll.
On Monday, the Buffs remained at No. 3 in the AP poll, despite a 76- 68 loss to then-no. 5 UCLA in Boulder on Friday. CU bounced back to beat No. 6 USC 63-59 on Sunday.
South Carolina remained a unanimous No. 1, while UCLA jumped back up to No. 2, where it resided for eight consecutive weeks before slipping last week.
Just behind CU is Kansas State, which moved up three spots to No. 4. Iowa, which lost in overtime to Ohio State on Sunday, fell three spots to No. 5. Stanford is at No. 6, followed by North Carolina State, Connecticut, LSU and Texas to round out the top 10.
Also ranked from the Pac-12 is No. 11 USC, No. 16 Utah and No. 25 Oregon State.
Oregon State ( 15- 3) moved into the rankings for the first time since Dec. 6, 2022, just in time to host CU in Corvallis on Friday (8 p.m. MT, Pac-12 Network). The matchup with OSU will be CU’S fourth consecutive against a ranked opponent.
More important than rankings, the win against USC kept the Buffs in first place in the Pac-12 and could have long-term importance if tie- breakers come into play.
Stanford is also 6-1 in the conference — with a loss to CU — while UCLA was 4-1 entering the Bruins’ game at Utah on Monday night. Every other team in the conference has at least three losses.
Not that Payne or her players are worrying about that now.
“I mean, we want to win them all,” she said. “Every game we play we’re trying to win and if we don’t then we’ve got to figure out what to fix and win the next one.”
It was also important how the Buffs won. Sunday was just the second time this season that CU had a game decided in the final minute. The Buffs are now 2- 0 in those games, also winning at Arizona, 75-74, on Jan.5.
“When you win a close game, you do, you lean on that later in the year,” Payne said.
“You remember what it felt like to secure a defensive rebound when they were going to come to the glass, things like that.”
Offense slowed
Prior to a Jan. 14 matchup against Stanford, CU was averaging 82.1 points per game and shooting 49.1% as a team.
In three games since, the Buffs have averaged 67.3 points while shooting 43.3%.
Certainly the quality of opponents played a role — all three were ranked in the AP top 10 and are among the better defensive teams in the conference — but Payne felt the Buffs’ offense was stagnant against UCLA and said Sunday that she’ll look to get it rolling again.
“I definitely will study the film,” she said.
“I’m our offensive coach. We do stuff collectively, but I definitely think I need to make sure that my strategies are able to flow. In the beginning of the game, maybe this.
“Later in the game maybe I need to adjust what we’re running or what we’re looking at.
“Just like we ask (the players) to watch the film and get better, we also need to watch the film and get better.”
CU still ranks second in the Pac-12 and 13th nationally in field goal percentage (48.1%).