Although the Colorado women’s basketball team has been working out together for several weeks, there’s certainly a measure of excitement that comes with the first official day of practice.
Including breaking in some new practice jerseys.
“I know for them, anytime they get real practice gear, it’s very exciting,” CU head coach JR Payne said. “I think it’s always exciting because now you feel like you’re really in season. Before you were just kind of prepping to get to this point, and now everything has to dial up a little bit.”
On Monday, the new-look Buffaloes officially kicked off preseason practices. They have six weeks to prepare for the season opener, slated for Nov. 4 at Wyoming, and they’re going to need every bit of those six weeks to get ready.
Coming off back-to-back Sweet 16 appearances and three consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament, the Buffs have a high standard, but they’re also in a major remodeling project. Of the 14 players on the roster, 10 are new to the team and 11 have never played a single minute in a CU uniform.
“Ten new players is probably double what I’ve ever had,” Payne said, “but fortunately for us, it’s a good mix of transfers and freshmen and great kids and great chemistry so far. It’s been all good.”
After losing several players to graduation and several more to the transfer portal, CU brought in four true freshmen and six transfers to retool the roster.
Fifth-year senior Frida Formann is one of only four returners – along with fellow seniors Kindyll Wetta and Sara-Rose Smith and redshirt freshman Kennedy Sanders. Since the spring Formann has expressed her excitement about the changes but said it’s a process to get ready.
“I think team chemistry wise, we’re doing super great,” Formann said. “Basketball wise we just need to grow. We just need to keep growing. There’s always things that I feel like can be better, but each practice, you definitely feel like we’re coming in, everyone has good energy. Everyone’s willing to really give everything they have that day. So as long as we do that every day, we’ll be good.”
Every offseason, teams have a limited amount of time they can spend together with workouts. A year ago, a veteran CU team used that time to polish its game ahead of a season full of expectation.
This year, those offseason workouts carried some extra value as the 10 new players had to learn the Buffs’ complicated Princeton offense and acclimate to the system, in general.
“I say all 10 of them are freshmen to me, because everything we’re doing is different,” Payne said. “The way that we do things and the way that we operate, the offense we run, and all of that is new to them. So it’s a lot of teaching, a lot of patience, a lot of stop, talk, fix it, go out and do it. And that’s been actually kind of a cool challenge.”
CU’s whole operation is different this year because of how many players are new, but Formann has been impressed with her new teammates’ willingness to learn.
“That’s been a great positive for me,” she said. “You need to have people who are willing to accept that they might not know everything – because they don’t – and be willing to have me and Kindyll and the coaches tell them what to do all the time.
“I think they’ve just taken it on super well and have been super patient and just trying to figure it out and willing to get better, and figure out our offense, even though it’s complicated. That’s been really great these past few months.”
With the summer building blocks in place, the Buffs have a sense of urgency with practice officially underway. Payne said there’s been so much focus on the offense that they haven’t done much defense this summer, but that will be a priority now. More skill development can also take place with more practice time allowed.
While it’s a challenge, Payne is excited to get the next phase rolling.
“Certainly off the court this is a group that has more cohesion than we’ve had in a while,” she said. “On court cohesion is definitely going to continue to be a work in progress.”
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