Ultimately, the final result was not what the Colorado women’s basketball team had hoped for this season.

After three consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament, including back-to-back Sweet 16s, the bar has been raised by head coach JR Payne and her staff. Coming up just short of the NCAA Tournament and falling at home to Gonzaga on Sunday in the second round of the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament didn’t meet the standard.

The 2024-25 campaign wasn’t easy, by any means, but was impressive when considering the challenges faced by the Buffs.

Despite a roster overhaul, a jump from the Pac-12 to the Big 12 and a plethora of injuries, Payne still managed to lead the Buffs to a 20-win season (21-13) and a fifth consecutive trip to the postseason.

As a No. 1 seed in the WBIT, the Buffs were one of the first four teams to miss out in the 68-team NCAA Tournament field. Just one more win along the way might have landed them in March Madness.

“This year’s ball club has been through a lot, even before the season started, with 10 new players and only having a couple returners that had played significant minutes (in previous years),” Payne said.

“We felt like this team had a ton of potential but that it was going to take some time to get to where we could be, and we didn’t factor in all the injuries and stuff that we were going to have.

“So in spite of all of that, just unbelievably proud of our team for their resilience, cohesiveness, just everything that we’ve accomplished this year.”

In large part because of the injuries, this team never did reach its full potential.

It was clear a year ago, after the Buffs lost to Caitlin Clark and Iowa in the Sweet 16, that this year would be a much different challenge for Payne and her staff.

Stars Jaylyn Sherrod and Quay Miller graduated, Aaronette Vonleh was lured away by Baylor, Tameiya Sadler used her bonus COVID season at Mississippi, and five youngsters who didn’t get much playing time transferred out.To rebuild, the Buffs leaned on their three returning seniors — Frida Formann, Sara-Rose Smith and Kindyll Wetta — while adding six transfers and four freshmen.

Missouri State transfer Jade Masogayo (12.5 points per game, 4.8 rebounds per game) posted the fifth-best single-season field goal percentage (.599) in program history and was perhaps CU’s most reliable performer each night.

Lior Garzon (Oklahoma State), Nyamer Diew (Iowa State) and Johanna Teder (Washington State) all provided some good moments. Redshirt freshman Kennedy Sanders and true freshmen Tabitha Betson and Grace Oliver — as well as Erin Powell on a few occasions — stepped up, as well.

Even with challenges of getting everyone on the same page — challenges that lasted all year — this was a team that, when fully healthy, could play with anyone, with victories over No. 14 West Virginia and No. 10 Kansas State as proof. They also nearly upset No. 6 TCU in the Big 12 tournament quarterfinals.

But, the Buffs were rarely fully healthy. The full rotation was available for just eight of 34 games, none of those after Jan. 4. Formann, the program’s all-time leader in 3-pointers (300) and the top scorer (12.5 points per game), missed 18 games, including the last 14.

“(Missing Formann) was really difficult, just because she was the most experienced player in the program,” Payne said. “So that was tough in and of itself, with 10 new players.”

Overall, the rotation missed 45 games due to injuries — almost as many as the previous five years combined (46). Teder was the only player who participated in all 34 games.

Injuries to Formann and others sometimes forced Buffs to play out of position. Other players, particularly Smith over the last month, didn’t practice much, if at all, to preserve some health for game nights.

“But, the great thing about our team is, everyone’s been very willing. We have a bunch of players that want to work, they want to play,” Payne said. “Having kids like that, that are willing and able to say, ‘Yeah, I’m not sure exactly how to do it, but I’ll give it my best,’ has been very fortunate for us.”

In the new era of college sports, where the transfer portal and NIL payments dominate offseason talk, there will be challenges this offseason, too. Freshman Lova Lagerlid, who played in just three games, has already announced she will transfer, and she likely won’t be alone in jumping to the portal.

But, Payne and her staff will strive once again to meet the program standard in 2025-26.

“We’ve had a lot of success in recent years in the NCAA Tournament,” Payne said. “That’s the expectation is to be there every year and to make a deep run. Going back-to-back Sweet 16s was pretty big for this program. And so that’s our expectation every year.”