Losing Murray for her senior season or a strong majority will be devastating, as SMS highly depended on her for her outside the arc shooting, much of last year and this year. She actually made more 3-ptrs and had a slightly higher percentage beyond the arc than Kat Tudor last season, shooting 40% beyond the arc. Kat shot 39%.
Look for Neenah Young (34% on 86 attempts) and sophomore Jada Moss (37%, although only 19 attempts and played very few minutes as a freshman) to be asked to "try" and backfill for the 188 3-point attempts Murray had last year, plus 165 3-point attempts (at 39%) by Kat Tudor.
Much still unknown as to impact Amaya Oliver, the 6ft incoming freshman, will have. But, I anticipate her playing Varsity and coming off the bench at first. This year's team will definitely lack the depth it has had over the last couple of years. No doubt. But, Ariel Johnson has demonstrated she can play and was huge in a couple of games last year when the team needed her. With Murray absent, I anticipate the starters to be Acosta, Moss, both Young sisters, and Johnson. SMS will be fine, just not as deep, and will need to depend on others to fill a huge void with the outside shooting or look to change their game to go more inside. Johnson proved she can penetrate, and anticipate Oliver will come off the bench unless cracks into the starting line-up to show why she is one of the top freshmen in NorCal, maybe the state, maybe the country. Her style of play definitely fits into SMS's game, as she can run. Confident she will get conditioned to handle the endurance. All will have to pick up on endurance due to lack of depth. Stay tuned.