There were times last year when the Colorado women’s basketball team needed Quay Miller to put up big numbers.

Quite often, the 6-foot-3 center would come through, as she posted 10 double-doubles in a first-team All-Pac-12 season.

This season, Miller’s production isn’t quite the same, but the No. 8 Buffaloes (9-1) also have more weapons than they had a year ago, which has taken a bit of pressure off of Miller, now a fifth-year senior.

“I feel like, because we have so many different weapons I don’t have to do as much, in terms of always having to score or just being able to really execute whatever areas and attack whatever areas my team and coaches need me to attack,” she said. “Knowing that I have teammates that will help me anywhere that I’m lacking, honestly, like, if I’m not scoring, I have Frida, Jay, Netty, Tameiya, Maddie, Sara. We have a lot of players that can come in and do that, too.”

That’s not to say Miller isn’t needed, of course. But there’s no question the Buffs have more around her than they did a year ago.

Frida Formann (15.9 points per game), Aaronette Vonleh (15.3), Jaylyn Sherrod (12.7) and Kindyll Wetta (6.7) are all on pace for career-best scoring averages. Guards Maddie Nolan and Sara-Rose Smith are transfers that have, along with Tameiya Sadler, provided scoring punch, too. That trio is averaging a combined 14.6 points per game.

All of that has helped CU become a much more dynamic offensive team than they were a season ago, even with Miller not putting up the same numbers.

To this point, Miller has averaged 10.4 points and 7.0 rebounds per game, down from the 13.1 points and 8.9 rebounds she averaged last year.

Miller said she still feels like the go-to player she was last year, but added, “I feel like everybody has got a bigger role, though, now.”

That’s been reflected a bit in the playing time. Miller averaged 31.6 minutes per game last year, but that’s down to 24.5 this year as the coaching staff has expanded the rotation (several blowout victories have kept her minutes down in some games, too).

“As I’m getting older, if they need me to play 40 minutes I can, but we have other threats that can do that where I don’t need to play that many minutes,” Miller said.

Another factor for Miller is that she’s had to shake off some early-season inconsistency.

Miller averaged 6.5 points and 3.0 rebounds in the first two games, and then had back-to-back double-doubles. That was followed by a three-game run at the U.S. Virgin Islands where she averaged just 6.3 points and 5.0 rebounds.

In the last of those games, against North Carolina State on Nov. 25, she went just 2-for-13 from the floor with five points and four rebounds. At that point, she was averaging 9.0 points and 5.9 rebounds and shooting 33.8% from the floor.

“I think consistency should be the biggest goal right now for Quay,” CU head coach JR Payne said. “Being able to find ways to score but also when you miss a shot … find a way to make an impact. She can have 12 rebounds a night, and there’s ways that she can help us besides just scoring the ball.”

That consistency is starting to show up. Miller has averaged 13.7 points and 9.7 rebounds while hitting 51.7% of her shots in the past three games. She had season highs for points (21) and rebounds (11) in CU’s last game, a 95-74 victory against UT-Arlington on Dec. 5. That night, she made 7-of-11 shots, including 4-of-7 from 3-point range.

“My confidence is up there,” she said. “Obviously, I’m not performing as I started out last year, but learning from my little funk that I had at the end of last season helped me understand like, it’s not just about scoring. Yeah I need to perform well. But if I’m not scoring, I can just get a lot of rebounds or I can turn it up on defense.”

With only one game (Dec. 21 against Northern Colorado) during a 24-day stretch from Dec. 6-29, Miller is striving for more consistency before the Dec. 30 start of Pac-12 play.

“I know what I’m capable of,” she said. “My teammates and coaches do, and I also know that they have trusted me.”