JR Payne

In 2000, Payne began her women's basketball coaching career at Gonzaga under Kelly Graves. The team improved from five wins in 2000–01 to 28 wins in the 2004-05 season, including a perfect record in West Coast Conference play. Payne helped recruit guard Shannon Mathews, who would become the first All-American in program history.[5]

In 2005, Payne became an assistant coach at Boise State under Gordy Presnell. During her time as assistant, Boise State won Western Athletic Conference titles two of her three years and made the NCAA Tournament. Boise State finished 24-8 twice in a row, including a perfect 14-0 home record in the 2007-08 season.[5]

In 2009, Payne got her first head coaching opportunity at Southern Utah. Payne was Head Coach at Southern Utah for five seasons. While Head Coach for the Thunderbirds the school transitioned from competing in the Summit League to move to the Big Sky Conference. Payne led Southern Utah team to two winning seasons, including a record 23-win season, Big Sky Conference regular season co-championship, and first-ever postseason appearance in program history in the 2014 Women's National Invitation Tournament.[6]

While JR Payne finished her career at Southern Utah with only two winning seasons (out of five) her teams did manage an overall winning 24-16 Conference record in Summit League and Big Sky Play.

On April 6, 2014, Payne became head coach at Santa Clara.[7] Payne was head coach at Santa Clara for two seasons competing in the WCC Conference. Payne led Santa Clara to a 23-win season in 2015–16, and the Santa Clara Broncos made the WNIT returning to the postseason for the first time in ten years.[8]

While JR Payne finished her career at Santa Clara with only one winning season (out of two) her teams did manage an overall 18-18 Conference record in WCC Conference play.

Following Santa Clara's exit from the WNIT, Payne was offered the Head Coach position at the University of Colorado-Boulder (Pac-12), The University of Arizona (Pac-12), and the University of New Mexico (Mountain West).[9]

On March 28, 2016, Payne became head coach at Colorado.[10] The eighth head coach in program history, Payne replaced Linda Lappe, who was fired after only managing only a career 33-57 (.367) record in Pac-12 play. JR Payne inherited a program that only finished 7-23 (2-16 Pac-12) in Lappe's final season.[11]

JR Payne inherited a program that had a lack of player talent. The Buffs were only 14-58 (.194) in the last four years of Linda Lappe's coaching tenure in Pac-12 play, despite having a player that would go on to become the program's All-Time assists leader. Colorado finished the 2018-19 season with just a 2-16 Pac-12 record. In it 45 years history, it marked the fifth time that the Buffs failed to win at least three conference games. Payne's 2018-19 Colorado team began Pac-12 conference play 0-11, the worst start to conference play in program history.[12] The 102-43 loss at Oregon was the Buffs' worst loss since 1984 and it was the 4th worst loss in program history.[12]

Prior to the start of the 2019-20 season, the Buffs were anticipated to continue to struggle, and picked to finish last place in the Pac-12 Women's Basketball Coaches poll by fellow Pac-12 coaches.[13] Yet, Payne and her staff invested in completely remaking the culture of the Colorado Buffs women's basketball team and the team bought in.[14] The Buffs finally turned the corner from the program's struggles to play at a competitive level within the Pac-12 conference. The Buffs put a scare into #6th ranked Stanford, taking the Cardinal to overtime.[15] Colorado had the attention of #8th ranked UCLA, having a chance to tie the game on the last possession.[16] Colorado again played competitively vs Stanford, but lost on a on a crucial turnover.[17] Colorado upset #11th ranked Arizona on Feb 23, 2020 to get their fifth Pac-12 win on the season. It marked the first win over a ranked opponent since 2016 and stopped a 32 games losing streak against ranked opponents.[18]

Through five seasons as Head Coach of the University of Colorado Women's Basketball team, JR Payne has only managed 19 total Conference wins. JR Payne has a career 19-59 (.244) Conference record in Pac-12 play, losing about three conference games for every conference game won. The previous Head Coach at CU, Linda Lappe, had 37 Conference wins in her first five seasons.

Entering the 2020-21 season, the Pac-12 Women's Conference Coaches voted in their pre-season poll that Colorado would finish near the bottom of the Pac-12 once again, with a predicted 9th place finish.[19] Colorado for the second season in a row has had First Quarters where they came out flat and struggled offensively. The CU Buffs only managed 8 total points in the first quarter against Washington State on January 3rd, 2021, matching the 8 total points in the First Quarter against UCLA on Feb 28th, 2020. [20]