Throughout their short time in Boulder, Jadyn Atchison and Mikayla Johnson have heard the message over and over again.

Talent is great, but that’s not going to get them minutes on game day with the Colorado women’s basketball team.

“You can work on the talent and everything, but just like going out there and being a dog is a whole other thing, especially at this level,” Johnson said.

No. 8-ranked CU (9-1) will play its non-conference finale on Thursday against Northern Colorado (noon, Pac-12 Network) and with conference games around the corner, the Buffs want their two freshmen to pick it up.

After reaching the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament last year, the Buffs returned almost the entire rotation, plus added a pair of veteran transfers. Head coach JR Payne could lean on her veterans and have a 10-deep rotation.

But, as the program has grown under Payne’s watch, so have the expectations for the younger players. CU has five freshmen, three of which are redshirting, but Johnson and Atchison are available and talented.

“I’m seeing that they have a lot of potential and that potential is not being reached,” Payne said. “That’s just my honest answer. They need to pick it up. They’re on a top 10 team in the country that has a lot of people ahead of them at their position and being talented means nothing. You have to outwork people, you have to out-tough people. You have to prove why you should be on the floor.”

Through the first 10 games, Atchison and Johnson, both 6-foot-1 guards, have both played 36 minutes. Atchison has checked in to seven games, while Johnson has played in six.

With Pac-12 play starting Dec. 30 against No. 11 Utah, those minutes won’t be there if Atchison and Johnson aren’t ready. But Payne wants them to be on the court.

“I have no desire to trim minutes (in conference play),” she said. “In fact, I sometimes feel like I want kids to play more than they want to play.”

Payne won’t force it, though. Utah is one of five other ranked teams in the Pac-12 (also UCLA, USC, Stanford and Washington) and Washington State is just outside of the rankings. Eleven of CU’s 18 conference games are against those six teams. And the rest of the conference isn’t easy, either.

“If you have two bad minutes against Utah, they could reel off 12 points and it’s game over, so you can’t really afford to play anyone in a game like that — or against anybody in our league — that isn’t disciplined and tough and won’t wilt when they get tired,” Payne said. “You’ve got to be tough as nails.”

Atchison and Johnson are working on it.

“(Payne) will tell us, ‘This is what you need to do if you want to see the floor, if you want to be in the rotation,’” Atchison said. “It’s just a matter of we have to do the little things that everybody else is doing to keep up with them.”

Atchison, from Cedar Hill, Texas, and Johnson, from Anchorage, Alaska, both said they’re no strangers to tough coaching and hard work, but admitted the college level has been an adjustment.

“It’s going pretty well,” said Johnson, who arrived at CU in January and redshirted last year, “but still trying to get the intensity part up to par with the rest of the team. … I thought the pace was fast last year, but now learning the plays and now playing with the plays, it’s big.”

Payne said both can be extremely valuable assets for the Buffs as they aim to contend for a Pac-12 title and make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.

“There’s things that they bring that the team needs, but you know our team: if you’re not going to be super tough, gritty, play with tremendous effort and talk and all of those things, it’s going to be very difficult to play,” Payne said. “I think they’re hearing (the message). I don’t think they’re applying it the way they need to.”

Senior point guard Jaylyn Sherrod, who embodies the grit and toughness of the program, said Atchison and Johnson both display “so much potential,” which is part of why the veterans get on them every day.

“They can add to this team,” Sherrod said. “It’s just about learning the intangibles and what really makes Colorado the culture that we have and what we do night in, night out. That’s more so what we’re trying to instill in them right now.”