Looks like another potentially valuable pick-up from the transfer portal for the Buffs, as per the below tweets they've picked up 6'1" junior wing
Sara-Rose Smith, who's been attending and playing at Missouri. She hails from Victoria, Australia. (Although I don't see anything formal on cubuffs.com yet, since the Buffzone/ Brian Howell article is quoting Coach Payne, assume this has
officially happened.)
It looks like Ms. Smith was mainly the 6th player (AKA 1st player off the bench) for the Tigers, although she did start 5 games last season. Most notably, she led Mizzou in rebounding at 6.7 per game, while "only" playing 21.7 minutes per game for the 18-14 Tigers. She also averaged 6.7 points and 1.2 rebounds per game.
(She's played 3 years at Missouri, but with one of those being the 2020/21 Covid year, assume she has 2 years of eligibility if she and the coaches want that.
One note- in the wbbblog.com's listing for her in his transfer section for the Buffs (at
https://wbbblog.com/womens-basketball-transfers-d-i-2022-23/4/), it does state she "entered portal after close of transfer portal". I have
no idea what if anything that could mean regarding her ability to play next season, but assume the Buffzone article would have noted something if there was a question whether or not she was not going to be eligible next season.?.)
OFFICIAL Welcome and congrats to her!
More links for her:
Her Missouri roster page (among other things, has a tab with detail stats for her) -
https://mutigers.com/sports/womens-basketball/roster/sara-rose-smith/13734
A detailed post-season feature on her and her development last season (obviously at that time it wasn't known she'd end up in the portal, but otherwise hopefully accurate.) -
https://www.rockmnation.com/2023/3/...le-player-to-star-sixth-player-mizzou-wbb-sec
Article from Missouri's hometown paper noting she'd entered the portal (in mid-May) -
https://www.columbiatribune.com/sto...ose-smith-enters-transfer-portal/70219027007/