Michelle Smith notebook: For Colorado women's basketball, 'effort is everything'

The culture that JR Payne has been trying to create in Colorado was distilled succinctly by senior guard Jaylyn Sherrod recently at practice.

“She said ‘Effort is everything.’ And I loved it because it’s so simple and it’s so much what we are about,” Payne said. “There are expectations and consequences in everything we do, from the first drill of the day to the last. That is our culture.”

The Buffaloes (13-3, 4-1) head into Friday night’s high-stakes showdown with No. 14 Arizona in Boulder with five straight wins and a 10-game winning streak on their home floor. The program that is coming off its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2013 is looking to build on that with another, and games like this are an important part of the journey.

Colorado is already coming off a big win, ending then-No. 8 Utah’s unbeaten run last Friday. It was the Buffaloes’ first win against a Top-10 opponent since they toppled top-ranked Stanford in January of 2021.

“We don’t have as many five-star recruits, we don’t have ‘X, Y and Z’ players, but we know who we are,” Payne said. “We are tough, physical and we don’t back down. We are detailed and we play our butts off and when we do that, we are hard to beat.”

Picked to finish eighth in the Conference race, Colorado is being led by senior post Quay Miller, who is averaging 14.1 points and 7.5 rebounds a game, and Aaronette Vonleh, the sophomore transfer from Arizona, who is averaging 11.5 points a game and is the latest intraconference transfer to be taking on her former team this week. Vonleh has scored at least 10 points in her last 11 games.

Sherrod, averaging 9.6 points and 5.5 assists a game, is one of the league’s most experienced backcourt players and one of its best defenders.

“We are in a good place,” Payne said. “This is a very mature group. We have strong upperclassmen, good chemistry and a lot of unselfishness. And we are locked in defensively.”

The Buffaloes rank second in the Pac-12 in scoring defense, allowing opponents just 55.7 points a game and 36.3 percent shooting from the floor and 27.7 percent from beyond the 3-point arc.

Payne said last year’s team had strong chemistry as well, but the difference this season is Colorado’s balance on the offensive end, with three starters averaging double figures - Miller, Vonleh and junior guard Frida Formann with Sherrod nearly there as well.

“People are sharing the ball and making the extra pass,” Payne said. “And Quay has been very vocal and holding people accountable. She’s been locked in.”

Against the Wildcats, Payne said the result may come down to one thing: taking care of the ball. 

“Their forced turnovers help them get going,” Payne said. “There’s more to it than that, of course. It’s going to come down to defense and rebounding.”

Ducks down a key player?

Oregon freshman Grace VanSlooten is questionable for the weekend series against the Washington schools with a foot injury, according to coach Kelly Graves. She twice left Sunday’s loss to Arizona and was wearing a boot at practice on Wednesday. VanSlooten leads Oregon in scoring (15.7 ppg) and is second in rebounding (6.4).

“We’ve got to survive here the next little bit until she can get fully healthy,” Graves told the Oregonian on Wednesday, characterizing her as a “question mark” for the weekend.

Bears on the verge

After a 60-56 home loss to No. 2 Stanford in which the Bears (10-5, 1-3) played toe-to-toe with the Cardinal (16-1, 4-0) until the final moments, Cal is hitting the road to take on former coach Lindsay Gottlieb and the USC Trojans on Friday before a matchup against No. 8 UCLA on Sunday.

“It was an effort to be proud of,” Bears coach Charmin Smith said after the game. “It’s unfortunate that you don’t get to jump around and celebrate when you work so hard. We’re right there.”

That point was reinforced by Golden State Warriors superstar Steph Curry, who came into the Bears locker room after the game to offer some important words of encouragement.

“You have to believe you are getting better,” Curry told the team in a video recorded by the Associated Press. “Eventually you’ll get into a game and you’ll look at each other and then it’s going to click…Maintain that patiences through all these growing pains because it will all pay off.”

Sophomore guard Jayda Curry said it was important to have Steph Curry reiterate the team’s goals.

“He is talking about the same things we are talking about,” she said. “Showing us that we know what we can do.”