Senior season in doubt for Naje Murray

[Streak One]

St. Mary's-Stockton senior guard Naje Murray could miss all of her senior season after suffering an ACL injury this summer.

ESPN did a wonderful story on Naje about the injury, recruiting and her outlook on the season - http://www.espn.com/espnw/sports/ar...ecruit-naje-murray-continues-inspire-st-marys

 

[ClayK]

Another blow for SMS. But Tom Gonsalves has managed to win lots of games without a roster full of elite talent before, so I think counting the Rams out is probably more than a little premature.

 

[Streak One]

Definitely premature. They will still be in the mix at the end in the Open Division.

 

[Paytc]

Definitely premature. They will still be in the mix at the end in the Open Division.

Yes they have a history and tradition of being an elite program. But losing as much as they have lost will definitely present a challenge this season. One of the main reasons (outside of having several superior athletes) that separated SMS from the pack was their depth. That depth provided hunger and competition during practice and throughout the year. It also let them be one of the most confident teams in the history of prep girls basketball. Much of last season's starting line up is not gonna be there. And the depth and leadership won't be there. It will take time to build trust and team chemistry. But yes they still have talent. And they will still be good. I am very sad to hear of Naje's injury. She is a very special player and fun to watch. I wish her a speedy and full recovery.

 

[Willtalk]

I thought SMS would still be very good until Murry got injured. Now there are question marks. She was their best outside shooter and SMS offense relies on out side shooters. While they still have players who can hit the 3 pointers, no player hits 3 pointers consistently. That is why you can never have too many. Well we will have to see if any other scorers emerge to provide depth to the ones returning from last season. I saw a few possibilities.

Naje, I felt was going to show everyone what she could do this year. She was a much more explosive player than her stats showed, because the team had such balanced scoring. I felt with this years team she probably might have put up a few 20 pts games. They still have many talented players returning but they are really going to miss her on both offense and defense. Well perhaps Oliver can pick up a lot of the scoring slack due to Naje's absence.

 

[RespectBBGame]

How many freshman real make an impact in the game at the high level. DeCosta was known east to west coast at high level. The player for SMS that will make the biggest impact besides DeCosta will be A. Johnson. She knows how to get to the rack through traffic, passes very well and has a decent jump to make other player honest when theyou have to defend her. The only problem she has is defending man to man but don't have to worry about that to much playing for SMS since they ate always in scramble. This year the depth won't be there. This the pressure won't be there in the big games without bench. SMS will start DeCosta, Johnson. Young, ? And ? . Who will come offrom the bench is the question. This might be one of them year that your will actually see players from the JV last year make the team.

 

[ClayK]

It's happened before. I believe Kendall Kenyon played JVs as a freshman.

 

[bulldogmgc]

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.

 

[Streak One]

Good insight @bulldogmgc on filling the three point shooting void. Hard enough to replace one of the state's top shooters. Now you have to do two in a system that places a high value on them.