Transfer Sara-Rose Smith bringing versatility, experience to CU Buffs – BuffZone

In the process of finding a new school for her senior season of college basketball, Sara-Rose Smith had a simple question for Colorado head coach JR Payne.

CU is coming off a run to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament and is slated to return eight of the 10 rotational players, including four starters. So, how would the 6-foot-1 transfer from Missouri fit in with the Buffs?

“That was one of the big questions that I had to coach JR is, ‘You’re returning pretty much everyone who had an impact last year so how am I going to slide in?’” Smith said.

That answer was pretty easy for Payne, because Smith, who grew up in Victoria, Australia, is really a classic Payne player.

“She’s the kind of player that we’ve always loved to have, in that she can play multiple positions, she’s a tremendous rebounder, she runs the floor really hard, does all of the dirty work,” Payne said. “She will do anything you ask her to do and is very coachable.”

Smith is much like former Buff wing Aubrey Knight, who battled shoulder injuries throughout her career but when healthy was too valuable to keep off the floor. So, as the Buffs gear up for this season, Smith is fitting right in.

“She is still learning our system and we’re asking her to play multiple positions,” Payne said. “It’s hard learning multiple positions and a new system is also hard, but she’s great.”

As a junior at Missouri last season, Smith mainly came off the bench (five starts), but played 21.7 minutes per game. She finished with 6.7 points and a team-best 6.7 rebounds per game, including nearly twice as many offensive rebounds as the next person on the team. Although Smith wasn’t a great 3-point shooter (18.5%) for the Tigers, she hit 55% of her shots inside the arc, 75.4% from the free throw line and added 38 assists and 25 steals.

“I’m a pretty versatile player, so that also gives me sort of an upper hand a little bit, as well,” she said. “I’ve got experience as well. I played for my three-on-three national team. I spent time in the Basketball Australia Centre of Excellence. I sort of feel like I’ve been around the block. Yeah, my previous college team didn’t have great success but I still have a good sense of the game of basketball and I’m really just hoping to bring what I can to the team (at CU).”