BOULDER — The goal for JR Payne, when she took over at Colorado, was to return the women’s basketball program to the NCAA Tournament.

In her sixth season in charge, the Buffaloes did just that, but fell to Creighton in the first round. Then the goal quickly became to secure CU’s first back-to-back trips to the tournament in nearly 20 years and advance past the first weekend.

The Buffs did that last year, reaching the Sweet 16 for the seventh time in program history.

Now, as Payne enters her eighth season in Boulder, the expectation remains unchanged. But for her program’s reputation, this is the year that changes. This is the year no one is surprised that the Buffs, ranked No. 20 in the preseason AP poll, are a team capable of being one of the last four or eight teams standing competing for a national championship.

“The goal every year is to be among the top teams in the country,” Payne said. “We recruit that way, we talk that way, we train that way. I believe that people should start anticipating we’ll be that team every year.”

It all starts with the culture that Payne and associated head coach Toriano Towns, her husband, have built. They want their team to be focused on what’s in front of them each day and it’s gotten to the point now that Payne and her staff don’t even need to remind any younger players not to look ahead. The veterans and team leaders do that for them.

“I talk about this a lot. Our team talks about it a lot. We’re just trying to be excellent today in whatever it is that we’re doing right now, whether it’s in the weight room, on the track conditioning, in a practice, in a live scenario,” Payne said. “I think that mindset, we really have instilled that in our ball club since Day One, when we weren’t winning a lot of games. Now that we’re winning more games, it’s still the goal. I think because that is so ingrained in who we are, we don’t really have to worry about overlooking anyone or looking too far ahead.”

It’s also not hard to drill home a message about not looking ahead when the first game on the schedule for the Buffs is in Las Vegas against the defending national champions and preseason No. 1 team, LSU.

“I don’t think there were a lot of people raising their hands to play the national champion who return most everybody and added the best transfer class in the country, but we love a challenge. It’s a great opportunity,” Payne said. “Kim Mulkey is a great coach. Their team is obviously really, really good. On a neutral floor, there’s no better challenge than to play LSU.”

CU is ready for every challenge it will face this season, whether it is in game one or down the road in an ultra-competitive Pac-12, where the Buffs were picked to finish fourth.

They return their top five scorers from last season and both Quay Miller and Jaylyn Sherrod, the heart and soul of the team, are back for a fifth and final season of college basketball.

“I try not to think about Senior Night. It’s far enough away that I don’t have to think about it yet,” Payne said. “But, definitely, I love the players that have been in our program and it’ll be a sad day when they’re done.”

The Buffs also return junior guard Kindyll Wetta, a Castle Rock native who has quickly become an indispensable piece to the program as a tough, hard-nosed player willing to take on the hardest defensive assignment and do all of the little things her team needs.

“I appreciate everything about Kindyll,” Payne said. “Ultimately, coaches want to coach players that they can trust. They don’t have to be the best scorer in the world, the best rebounder in the world. If I can just trust you to do your job and do it to the best of your ability, any coach in the world will take a handful of those players and that’s Kindyll.”

CU has also restocked in some key areas with transfers Sara-Rose Smith from Missouri and Maddie Nolan from Michigan. Smith will bring plenty of rebounding ability, while Nolan is a knock-down shooter that will provide depth at guard and help space the floor. Both are veteran players eager to contribute to winning basketball and it’s not hard to figure out why they both picked CU in the transfer portal.

“Just hearing stories from Jaylyn and JR about where they came from has been super cool,” Nolan told The Denver Gazette. “It’s kinda similar to our journey at Michigan, as well. So, I know how that felt for them to get to the Sweet 16 last year for the first time in a while. I know the hunger they have to get to an Elite 8, get to a Final Four (and) continue to be at the top of the Pac-12 every single year.”

For Nolan in particular, the Buffs’ Sweet 16 game against Iowa and the effort against superstar Caitlin Clark was about all she needed to see.

“That game against Iowa was a big one, for sure, just to see how they compete and how they play with the toughness that I feel like I can also bring,” Nolan said.

Nolan specifically mentioned a Final Four, something this program has yet to accomplish. They feel like they’ve got everything they need to be the first.

“The past few years it’s kinda been like, ‘Hey, let’s get to the tournament.’ But now, it’s an expectation,” Wetta told The Denver Gazette. “It’s not if we get there, it’s when we get there and how far we get.”

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Preseason Pac-12 media poll

1. Utah (12 first-place votes)

2. UCLA (10)

3. Stanford (5)

4. Colorado

5. Washington State

6. USC

7. Arizona

8. Oregon

9. Oregon State

10. Washington

11. California

12. Arizona State

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Full 2023-24 schedule

Nov. 6: vs. No. 1 LSU in Las Vegas, Nev. (5:30 p.m., TNT)

Nov. 8: vs. Le Moyne (6 p.m.)

Nov. 12: vs. Oklahoma State (4 p.m., Pac-12 Network)

Nov. 18: at SMU (7 p.m.)

Nov. 23: vs. Cincinnati in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands (11 a.m.)

Nov. 24: vs. Kentucky in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands (11 a.m.)

Nov. 25: vs. N.C. State in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands (11 a.m.)

Nov. 28: vs. Boston University (6 p.m.)

Dec. 2: at Air Force (1 p.m.)

Dec. 5: vs. UT Arlington (11 a.m.)

Dec. 21: vs. Northern Colorado (12 p.m., Pac-12 Network)

Dec. 30: vs. Utah (1 p.m.)

Jan. 5: at Arizona (6 p.m., Pac-12 Network)

Jan. 7: at Arizona State (12 p.m., Pac-12 Network)

Jan. 12: vs. California (7 p.m., Pac-12 Network)

Jan. 14: vs. Stanford (12 p.m., Pac-12 Network)

Jan. 19: vs. UCLA (6 p.m., Pac-12 Network)

Jan. 21: vs. USC (1 p.m., Pac-12 Network)

Jan. 26: at Oregon State (8 p.m., Pac-12 Network)

Jan. 28: at Oregon (1 p.m., Pac-12 Network)

Feb. 2: at Washington State (8 p.m., Pac-12 Network)

Feb. 4: at Washington (1 p.m., Pac-12 Network)

Feb. 9: vs. Oregon (7 p.m., Pac-12 Network)

Feb. 11: vs. Oregon State (12 p.m., Pac-12 Network)

Feb. 16: at Utah (6 p.m., Pac-12 Network)

Feb. 23: at USC (8 p.m., Pac-12 Network)

Feb. 26: at UCLA (7 p.m., ESPN2)

Feb. 29: vs. Washington (7 p.m., Pac-12 Network)

Mar. 2: vs. Washington State (1 p.m., Pac-12 Network)

Mar. 6: Pac-12 Tournament begins