Here comes Colorado! Can the Buffs reach their first Final Four? - ESPN

Candace Parker was impressed. The three-time WNBA champion and LSU legend Shaquille O'Neal were congratulating the Colorado Buffaloes in their locker room after they shocked the defending national champion LSU Tigers on the first day of the 2023-24 women's college basketball season. Parker had a front-row seat to the 92-78 win over the then-No. 1 team as part of the game's broadcast crew and wanted to ensure the Buffs knew just how big of a statement they'd made.

«Listen, a goal,» Parker said on her way out, clasping Colorado coach JR Payne's hand to emphasize her seriousness. «I hope to see you at the Final Four.»

Over two months later, the goal remains well within the realm of possibility for a team enjoying its best season in decades. No. 3 Colorado is 15-1 (5-0 Pac-12), the program's best 16-game start since 1992-93 and has a chance to further solidify its claim on the conference and as a national contender this weekend when it hosts No. 5 UCLA and No. 6 USC. Friday's game against the Bruins marks the first top-five matchup in the country this season, and it'll pit projected No. 1 seeds as Colorado was elevated to the top line in Friday's Bracketology update.

The Buffs' breakthrough has been «a culmination of just having the right pieces with the right experience with the right mindset,» Payne told ESPN this week, and «understand[ing] who we are culturally. We don't really try to deviate from what we are.» The roots of that culture — of grit and toughness, of embracing the role of being an underdog — were laid well before Payne arrived in Boulder. But the Buffs have harnessed that energy, stormed onto the national scene and are capable of a deep — and potentially historic — March run.

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