During her time as assistant, Boise State won Western Athletic Conference titles two of her three years and made the NCAA Tournament.
During her time as head coach for the Thunderbirds, the school transitioned from competing in the Summit League 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.
[7] Payne was head coach at Santa Clara for two seasons competing in the WCC Conference.
[8] Payne finished her career at Santa Clara with her teams managing an overall 18-18 record in WCC Conference play.
[10] The eighth head coach in program history, Payne replaced Linda Lappe, who was fired after only managing a career 33–57 (.367) record in Pac-12 play.
The Buffs were only 14–58 (.194) in the last four years of 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.
[14] The Buffs finally turned the corner from the program's struggles to play at a competitive level within the Pac-12 conference.
[18] Through five seasons as head coach of the University of Colorado women's basketball team, Payne only managed 19 total conference wins.
[20] Payne is married to assistant coach Toriano Towns and they have three children together: Aliyah, Jordan, and Jaxton.