2020–21 Colorado Buffaloes women's basketball team

The 2020–21 Colorado Buffaloes women's basketball team represented the University of Colorado Boulder during the 2020–21 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Buffaloes, led by fifth-year head coach JR Payne, played their home games at the CU Events Center and were a member of the Pac-12 Conference.

2020–21 Colorado Buffaloes women's basketball
WNIT, Quarterfinals
Conference	Pac-12 Conference
Record	12–11 (8–8 Pac-12)
Head coach	JR Payne (5th season)
Assistant coaches	Toriano Towns Alex Earl Shandrika Lee
Home arena	CU Events Center

2020–21 Pac-12 Conference women's basketball standings

	Conf.							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
No. 2 Stanford†	19	–	2		.905			31	–	2		.939
No. 11 Arizona	13	–	4		.765			21	–	6		.778
No. 9 UCLA	12	–	4		.750			17	–	6		.739
No. 23 Oregon	10	–	7		.588			15	–	9		.625
Oregon State	7	–	6		.538			12	–	8		.600
Colorado	8	–	8		.500			12	–	11		.522
Washington State	9	–	10		.474			12	–	12		.500
USC	8	–	10		.444			11	–	12		.478
Arizona State	6	–	9		.400			11	–	12		.478
Utah	4	–	15		.211			5	–	16		.238
Washington	3	–	13		.188			7	–	14		.333
California	1	–	12		.077			1	–	16		.059
† 2021 Pac-12 Tournament winner As of March 29, 2021 Rankings from AP poll

The Buffaloes finished the season 12–11, 8–8 in Pac-12 play to finish in sixth place. In the Pac-12 Tournament, they were upset by eleventh seed Washington in the first round. They received an at-large bid to the WNIT. They defeated Louisiana and Nebraska before losing to Ole Miss in the quarterfinals to end their season.

Previous season

The Buffaloes finished the season 16–14, 5–13 in Pac-12 play to finish in a tie for ninth place. As the tenth seed in the Pac-12 women's tournament they lost to USC in the first round. The NCAA tournament and WNIT were cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Offseason

Departures

Colorado Departures

Name	Num	Pos.	Height	Year	Hometown	Reason for Departure
Quinessa Caylao-Do	0	G	5'9"	Senior	Tacoma, WA	Graduated
Emma Clarke	3	G	6'1"	Sophomore	Perth, Western Australia	Transferred to Texas Tech
Kai Volcy	30	C	6'3"	Sophomore	Bloomfield, NJ	Stepped away from basketball

Incoming

Colorado incoming transfers

Name	Num	Pos.	Height	Year	Hometown	Previous School
Madison Buford	2	G	5'9"	Sophomore	St. Louis, MO	Rend Lake CC

Recruiting

College recruiting information

Name	Hometown	School	Height	Weight	Commit date
Frida Formann G	Bagsværd, Denmark	Falkonergårdens Gymnasium	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)	N/A	Oct 21, 2019
	Recruit ratings: No ratings found
Kylee Blacksten G	Colorado Springs, CO	Air Academy High School	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)	N/A	Oct 14, 2019
	Recruit ratings: No ratings found
Allysa Lafontaine G	Fort Worth, TX	Boswell High School	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)	N/A	Jul 13, 2019
	Recruit ratings: ESPN:    (89)
Sophie Gerber G	Scottsdale, AZ	Desert Mountain High School	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)	N/A
	Recruit ratings: No ratings found
Overall recruit ranking:
Note: In many cases, Scout, Rivals, 247Sports, On3, and ESPN may conflict in their listings of height and weight. In these cases, the average was taken. ESPN grades are on a 100-point scale. Sources: "2020 Player Commits". ESPN. Archived from the original on June 26, 2026.

Roster

2020–21 Colorado Buffaloes women's basketball team
Players	Coaches
Pos. # Name Height Year Previous school Hometown G 00 Jaylyn Sherrod 5 ft 7 in (1.7 m) So Rasmay Birmingham, AL G 1 Tayanna Jones 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) Jr North Johnston Rend Lake College Selma, NC G 2 Madison Buford 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) So Lutheran North Georgetown St. Louis, MO G 3 Frida Formann 5 ft 11 in (1.8 m) Fr Falkonergårdens Gymnasium Bagsværd, Norway G 4 Lesila Finau 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) Jr Dublin Dublin, CA G 11 Zuzanna Kulinska 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) So New York Military Gdynia, Poland G 13 Kylee Blacksten 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) Fr Air Academy Colorado Springs, CO G/F 14 Raanee Smith 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) So Friends' Central Philadelphia, PA C 20 Maura Singer 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) RS Fr Columbine Littleton, CO G/F 21 Mya Hollingshed 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) Sr Bellaire Houston, TX G 24 Aubrey Knight 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) Jr Ventura Ventura, CA F 25 Annika Jank 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) Sr Edina Edina, MN G 32 Allysa LaFontaine 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) Fr Boswell Fort Worth, TX F 33 Sirena Tuitele 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) Jr Pleasant Valley Chico, CA G 44 Sophie Gerber 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) Fr Desert Mountain Scottsdale, AZ F 45 Charlotte Whittaker 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) So St Andrew's College Ventura, CA	Head coach JR Payne (Saint Mary's) Assistant coach(es) Toriano Towns (Saint Mary's) Alex Earl (Arizona State) Shandrika Lee (Pepperdine) Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible (W) Walk-on Injured Current redshirt Roster Last update: May 13, 2021

Schedule

Source:

Date time, TV	Rank#	Opponent#	Result	Record	Site (attendance) city, state
Regular season
November 25, 2021* 6:00 p.m.		Western State	W 77–50	1–0	CU Events Center (17) Boulder, CO
November 28, 2020* 12:00 p.m.		Air Force	W 88–46	2–0	CU Events Center (17) Boulder, CO
December 4, 2020 3:00 p.m., P12N		at No. 10 Oregon	L 52–82	2–1 (0–1)	Matthew Knight Arena (1) Eugene, OR
December 6, 2020 6:00 p.m., P12N		at No. 17 Oregon State	L 53–70	2–2 (0–2)	Gill Coliseum (0) Corvallis, OR
December 8, 2020* 6:00 p.m.		at Denver	L 84–85	2–3	Magness Arena (0) Denver, CO
December 14, 2020 12:00 p.m., P12N		Utah	W 80–50	3–3 (1–2)	CU Events Center (17) Boulder, CO
December 18, 2020 5:00 p.m., P12N		No. 6 Arizona	L 59–62	3–4 (1–3)	CU Events Center (0) Boulder, CO
December 20, 2020 2:00 p.m., P12N		Arizona State	Canceled		CU Events Center  Boulder, CO
January 1, 2021 3:00 p.m.		Washington	W 60–50	4–4 (2–3)	CU Events Center (0) Boulder, CO
January 3, 2021 12:00 p.m., P12N		Washington State	L 63–76	4–5 (2–4)	CU Events Center (0) Boulder, CO
January 8, 2021 5:00 p.m.		at No. 9 UCLA	Canceled		Pauley Pavilion  Los Angeles, CA
January 11, 2021 1:00 p.m., P12N		at USC	L 52–56	4–6 (2–5)	CU Events Center (0) Boulder, CO
January 15, 2021 3:00 p.m., P12N		California	W 75–59	5–6 (3–5)	CU Events Center (0) Boulder, CO
January 17, 2021 12:00 p.m., P12N		No. 1 Stanford	W 77–72 OT	6–6 (4–5)	CU Events Center (0) Boulder, CO
January 22, 2021 3:00 p.m.		at Arizona State	L 47–51	6–7 (4–6)	Desert Financial Arena (0) Tempe, AZ
January 24, 2021 1:00 p.m., P12N		at No. 10 Arizona	Canceled		McKale Center  Tucson, AZ
January 29, 2021 6:00 p.m.		Oregon State	L 64–72	6–8 (4–7)	CU Events Center (0) Boulder, CO
January 31, 2021 12:00 p.m., P12N		No. 11 Oregon	Canceled		CU Events Center  Boulder, CO
February 5, 2021 7:00 p.m., P12N		at No. 6 Stanford	L 54–62	6–9 (4–8)	Maples Pavilion (1) Stanford, CA
February 7, 2021 2:00 p.m.		at California	W 67–52	7–9 (5–8)	Haas Pavilion (0) Berkeley, CA
February 12, 2021 6:00 p.m.		USC	W 66–56	8–9 (6–8)	CU Events Center  Boulder, CO
February 14, 2021 1:00 p.m.		No. 8 UCLA	Canceled		CU Events Center  Boulder, CO
February 19, 2021 1:00 p.m.		at Washington State	W 60–57	9–9 (7–8)	Beasley Coliseum (200) Pullman, WA
February 21, 2021 3:00 p.m.		at Washington	W 55–50	10–9 (8–8)	Alaska Airlines Arena (0) Seattle, WA
February 28, 2021 12:00 p.m., P12N		at Utah	Canceled		Jon M. Huntsman Center  Salt Lake City, UT
Pac-12 Women's Tournament
March 3, 2021* 9:00 p.m., P12N	(6)	vs. (11) Washington First Round	L 54–68	10–10	Michelob Ultra Arena (18) Paradise, NV
WNIT
March 19, 2021* 1:00 p.m., FloHoops		Louisiana First Round	W 68–45	11–10	My Town Movers Fieldhouse (300) Collierville, Tennessee
March 20, 2021* 4 p.m., FloHoops		Nebraska Second Round	W 75–71	12–10	My Town Movers Fieldhouse (300) Collierville, Tennessee
March 22, 2021* 6:00 p.m., FloHoops		Ole Miss Quarterfinals	L 56–65	12–11	My Town Movers Fieldhouse (300) Collierville, Tennessee
*Non-conference game. #Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. All times are in Mountain Time.

Rankings

2020–21 NCAA Division I women's basketball rankings

Regular season polls

Poll	Pre- season	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6	Week 7	Week 8	Week 9	Week 10	Week 11	Week 12	Week 13	Week 14	Week 15	Week 16	Final
AP
Coaches								RV

Legend

		Increase in ranking
		Decrease in ranking
		Not Ranked in Previous Week
(RV)		Received Votes
(NR)		Not Ranked

Note: The Coaches Poll does not release a Week 2 poll, and the AP poll does not release a poll after the NCAA Tournament.

See also

2020–21 Colorado Buffaloes men's basketball team