In 2016, coach JR Payne took over a Colorado women's basketball program that was struggling to find success. Now seven years later, her long-term investments in recruiting and building an identity for the Buffaloes have yielded consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances for the first time in nearly two decades.

This latest one -- which tips off Saturday night at 5 p.m. MT in Durham, N.C., vs. Middle Tennessee -- is especially impressive.

Colorado was picked eighth in the preseason Pac-12 media poll. Graduating multiple senior starters raised questions on how the Buffs would suffice in one of the most difficult conferences in the country with six programs — including Colorado — ranked in the most recent national polls.

But the No. 20-ranked Buffs put on quite a show with a 23-8 record so far -- a new high-water mark in Payne's seven-year tenure -- while finishing third in the Pac-12 with a 13-5 conference record.

Three of those wins came against then-No. 8 Utah, No. 14 Arizona and on a game-winning 3-pointer from sophomore guard Kindyll Wetta against No. 8 UCLA in overtime. Colorado also took then-No. 3 Stanford into double overtime in a tight loss.

The wins and the battles this season weren’t miraculous -- they were years in the making through the blue-collar work ethic Payne has instilled in the program since 2016.

“It takes a lot of time when you take over a program that hasn't had success, especially in a conference like this,” Payne said. “It's easier to turn a program around in a conference that's not quite as strong. I think we were very committed when we first got here to recruiting. Recruiting the right people and trying to turn the program around in the right way, not taking shortcuts, not recruiting people that just don't really fit our system and style.

“I think we [are] just sort of finally seeing sort of the fruits of our labor as far as players that had stuck it out, were willing to work and weren't just going to jump ship and transfer when it was hard.”

Again, that process started back March of 2016 when Payne was hired by Colorado after seven years of head coaching experience at Southern Utah (2009-2014) and Santa Clara (2014-2016). Coincidentally, she had elevated both programs to 23-win campaigns -- just like this Buffs team -- in her final season while building through early struggles.

The blueprint was already in place as she took Southern Utah from 7 wins her first season to 23-10 and the WNIT by year five, and then expedited that process in going from 11-18 to 23-9 in her two seasons at Santa Clara.

The roots of all of it started back at St. Mary's, where Payne was a decorated point guard, earning first-team All-West Coast Conference honors and twice being named to the WCC all-tournament team while reaching the NCAA tournament in 1999.

She was studying to potentially become a future college professor -- specifically in French -- but the connections made at St. Mary's would ultimately lead her to a different teaching discipline.

While there, she met her husband Toriano Towns, who would become her life-long coaching partner and is now Colorado's associate head coach. While she was on the basketball team, Towns played on the football team. They often collided into one another in the St. Mary’s athletic facilities and eventually connected.

“The facilities were much smaller than what we have here, so you definitely are going to rub elbows a ton,” Towns said. “I think we just kind of hit it off as friends and then ended up, at some point in time, started dating.”

Payne segued into coaching at Gonzaga under coach Kelly Graves, who is now Oregon's head women's basketball coach. Graves coached Payne at St. Mary’s before taking the head coach position for what was at the time a struggling Gonzaga program.

“Gonzaga hadn’t been out of last place in like nine years or something,” Payne said. “So, when [Graves] called and said he was leaving, I was like, ‘What?? You’re going there??’ And he asked me to go as an assistant coach.”

Meanwhile, Towns, who had also studied for a potential career in teaching, was assessing what life lay ahead of him after St. Mary’s. Teaching and dabbling with music followed, but Graves later extended the invitation to find a new role at Gonzaga, which led him to join Payne in Spokane, Wash., working in college admissions and recruiting.

Graves' mentorship and help early on fostered forever friendships with the pair. Payne still calls him once a week.

“He’s like my dad,” Payne said. “We talk once a week and if I ever have any real-life, big things coming up or whatever, he’s definitely one that I would lean on.”

Payne likely called Graves this week to chat about the madness that is about to ensue in Durham, North Carolina, on Saturday.

Last Sunday, the Buffs waited anxiously to see their names appear on ESPN’s NCAA tournament selection show broadcast. Unlike the suspense of last year, Colorado was certain it would be dancing in March and received a No. 6 seed and the matchup with No. 11 seed Middle Tennessee.

Senior point guard Jaylyn Sherrod, who was named the Buffs' most valuable player this season, is one of the players who bought into Payne's plan for the program and helped drive the program to this point over her four years in Boulder.

Coming from Birmingham, Alabama, Sherrod didn’t know “anything” about Colorado when she was being recruited back in 2018. Colorado struggled in the Pac-12 during those years going 5-13 in conference play in Payne's first two seasons and then 2-16 in 2018-19, but Payne was able to sell her vision to Sherrod and many others along the way.

“It's a testament to how good of a coach she is,” Sherrod said. “Getting people to buy into the idea that this place is a special place and it's a special team. I'm sure it is hard recruiting kids around the nation to come to Colorado just because, even for myself, I didn't know anything about Colorado before I came out here, or the Pac-12.

“I think it's taking a leap of faith on players. Showing players that you believe in them and also getting that return. For players to know she really has my back and she really believes in me so why not go out there and do what she sees that we could do, you know?”

Another testament came back in February when Payne was named one of 15 initial candidates for the 2023 Werner Ladder Naismith Women’s College Coach of the Year award, putting both her name and that of Colorado basketball alongside some of the best in the sport.

With the trajectory of Colorado women's basketball now aligning clearly with that vision she had for it from the start, Payne reflected back on the start of the process, taking over a program that had tumbled to 7-23 the season before her arrival and had been to only one NCAA tournament since a run of four straight from 2001-04.

“I think the biggest obstacle was just really establishing a culture of belief that we can win and that we can beat these teams that on paper should beat you,” Payne said. “ … Being able to establish where our success would come from culturally was definitely the most important thing.”

It's taken a lot of toil and effort to get it from there to here, but as Payne's partner in life and basketball said, they've enjoyed every part of this journey.

“We both really love what we do, so it never feels like work,” Towns said. “This feels like just something … this is woven into the fiber of who we are as people. If we weren't coaching I'm sure we would be servant leaders in some other industry, but our love for people, our love for relationships and in sharing whatever it is we have with those around us would still be essential to who we are as people. We just get to do it through basketball.”