MISSOULA — Wins have always followed Loree Payne.
“That's one of the biggest things that our team has done, is we wanted to create a winning culture," said Payne, now in her eighth season as the head women's basketball coach at Northern Arizona.
The Havre native won a high school state championship with the Blue Ponies, reached the Elite 8 while playing at the University of Washington and then found quick success as a coach.
But the turnaround at Northern Arizona might be her best work yet.
“When we took over eight years ago, they hadn't had a winning season in 12 years," Payne reflected. "And so we knew that we had our work cut out for us, but we knew it was about recruiting, getting the right players and getting the right fit in, and really getting players that fit our system.”
When Payne took over the Lumberjacks program in 2017, the early improvements were small — but noticeable. By her third year, NAU posted a winning season, its first since 2007.
The Big Sky Conference ascent has continued since then, and the Jacks have played in the last three conference championship games.
“I have a great staff, and we just have great people around this program that continue to build our players up and really try to, you know, just go out and have fun and stay positive and have a lot of success with it," Payne said.
Payne has engineered the success and earlier this year became the program’s all-time winningest coach.
But another Montanan has been along for the ride on her staff. Assistant coach TJ Harris is a Huntley Project alum.
“(Payne) is phenomenal. She is one of the best leaders," Harris said. "And, she allows us to grow. Like, I've grown so much in the last three-plus years that I've been here on the defensive side of the ball, being a coordinator. And then just as a coach in general, like, she puts us in so many positions to lead ourselves. It's been a great learning experience.”
Harris is the Lumberjacks’ defensive coordinator — an at-times stressful role given the fast tempo at which NAU plays.
“We can score the ball at an extremely high level, but if you let the other team score, it's still a basketball game," Harris said. "Not a lot of teams play as much defense as we do, like, possession-wise because of how many possessions we force in a game. ... We made a lot of changes in the last three years of what we want to do that's going to fit our team the best. And we found a lot of success this year. It's been fun.”
This year has been another banner season for NAU, which owns the top offense in the Big Sky and a top-15 scoring offense in the entire nation.
And the Jacks are again a top-two seed for the conference tournament — with hopes of ending their run of three runner-up finishes with a championship.
"We're controlling what we can control," Payne said. "And we're excited. Our players are very excited to go back to Boise and have an opportunity to compete for a championship again.”
Northern Arizona, which finished the regular season with a 25-6 overall record and 16-2 mark in Big Sky play, will play its first game in the tournament at 2:30 p.m. Sunday against either Eastern Washington or Sacramento State.
