The Colorado Buffaloes women’s basketball team was propelled to its first Sweet 16 appearance in two decades this season, thanks in large part to the discovery of Aaronette Vonleh — an Arizona transfer that played 119 total minutes her freshman season in Tucson, only to turn around and average nearly 27 minutes per night the very next year in Boulder.
As a result, Vonleh split the title of Pac-12 Most Improved Player of the Year with Arizona’s Shaina Pellington and was an honorable mention for the all-conference team, but Vonleh isn’t done yet. She recently returned to Boulder to get started on taking her next big leap.
“It’s only day three in the summer and I just feel like I’m already established,” Vonleh said, via BuffZone’s Brian Howell. “I kind of have a home here.”
Aaronette Vonleh is currently working on building up her rebounding ability.
Given her 6-foot-3 frame, Vonleh is one of the largest and strongest players on the court at any given time, and as a result, should be able to dominate the boards. However, that wasn’t the case during her first year in Boulder.
She finished 35th in the Pac-12 in rebounds per game last year (4.5), ranking her behind 12 different guards in the conference. She also had just five rebounds in the game which saw CU eliminated from the tournament.
“With my size, that’s not really acceptable,” Vonleh said. “I have an advantage and I need to be able to use it.”
In order to take advantage of those physical gifts, she’s made refining her rebounding game her top offseason priority.
“It definitely is just gonna come with, like, when we play open gym this summer because it really is like a game setting thing you have to work on,” she said. “And, then just really trying to change my mindset to crash every single time a shot goes up.”
If Aaronette Vonleh can take another leap this coming season, it could be enough to propel the Colorado Buffaloes to an even deeper tournament run.