For the second year in a row, the Colorado women’s basketball team will return just four players from the previous season.

As the Buffaloes look ahead to the 2025-26 campaign, however, they are excited about the foundation they have coming back.

Senior Jade Masogayo, junior JoJo Nworie and sophomores Tabitha Betson and Kennedy Sanders all helped the Buffs to a 21-13 record this past season, including a trip to the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament.

“I think it’s a really solid group,” CU head coach JR Payne said.

Masogayo, Nworie and Betson were among 10 newcomers last season, and the Buffs could have as many as 10 or 11 newcomers this year. But, the returning group is the foundation for 2025-26.

A 6-foot-3 forward who transferred from Missouri State last year, Masogayo was All-Big 12 honorable mention after leading CU with 12.5 points per game and finishing second at 4.8 rebounds per game. Her .599 field goal percentage was second in the Big 12 and fifth-best for a single season in CU history.

“I think we all wish we’d had four years together, but I think we’re all really excited to have two, because she just is an explosive athlete that has so much more,” Payne said. “As good as she was this year, there’s so much more that she can add to her game and how good she can get.”

Sanders, a 5-8 point guard, is the last link to CU’s Sweet 16 team of 2023-24, having redshirted that season. She backed up senior Kindyll Wetta this season and finished with 4.9 points and 2.3 assists per game.

Sanders played her best basketball late, averaging 9.3 points and 3.3 assists during an eight-game stretch that included the last five games of the regular season and three games at the Big 12 tournament.

“I thought Kennedy was so good down the stretch of the season,” Payne said. “Especially the conference tournament, she did so great. I’m really, really excited to see her continued development and just the next steps that she’s going to take in her development and maturation and all that.”

Betson was named the preseason Big 12 freshman of the year, but growing pains and a midseason concussion led to her not even making the postseason all-freshman team.

Still, Payne is bullish about the future for Betson, a 6-2 forward from Australia who finished with 5.4 points and 3.8 rebounds per game.

“We just got glimpses of what she’s capable of doing, because she’s just such a high IQ player,” Payne said. “So I think she’s going to make a really, really big jump from freshman year to sophomore year.”

The adjustment for any freshman is tough, especially coming from a foreign country.

Add in the preseason expectations, and it certainly added pressure on Betson, who was more consistent in the second half of the year after her concussion.

“It was almost like a reset and recalibrating who she is, what she wants to accomplish, how she wants to get there,” Payne said.

“I was just really, really proud of her for being able to have that sort of reset and come back strong. She was very reliable the second half of season, and I truly think the best is yet to come for her.”

Nworie, meanwhile, could be ready to finally bust loose.

The 6-foot-5 center from Nigeria spent two years at Texas Tech but never played because of injuries. This past year, she appeared in just 10 games — for a combined 48 minutes — for the Buffs as she continued to recover.

When the season was over, Nworie had scar tissue removed from her knee, which caused pain on top of the mental hurdle of coming back.

“She just never really had much of a chance to even practice a lot,” Payne said. “I just think she was so hesitant after two years, and with all the scar tissue and stuff … she was just in an exorbitant amount of pain. Now I think she really has a shot to really train and have a true off-season where she can get back to the player that she was before.

Masogayo, Betson and Nworie give the Buffs a solid trio in the frontcourt, while Sanders leads the backcourt. The Buffs are also bringing in five true freshmen and could add as many as six transfers.