I think it's obvious losing Sullivan off the staff hurts most at middle blocker. It's not just his acumen in developing the position. It's his advocacy in how the team should be run around the position. Sullivan helped make the position a priority.
I will say while Ames is a very good middle blocker, she never exactly jumped out of the gym. I guess I was expecting someone who looked more like Andi Jackson. Singletary looked like what I think of when I envision a star middle blocker at Texas. Frankly, Harvey has that look athletically, but just looks lost as a college level middle blocker. Her lateral and vertical speed look off the charts, but her instincts don't appear to exist. Bunton looks like a very solid MB2. Better potential than Bergmark, who I was very satisfied with.
My worst case scenario is that Ames transfers to A&M and Morrison develops her into a powerhouse. That would make it challenging to recruit against A&M for top middle blockers in the future. But I had a similar fear about Lexi Sun and Nebraska, and that worked out fine.
Losing starters in Singletary and Ames in back to back years is not a good look regardless, and makes it challenging to compete for national championships. This team would have looked different with Singletary in the lineup, IMO.
We'll see where she lands. I have no doubt wanting to win a national championship is what she's putting out there, but people say all kinds of things. Rumors that Wisconsin is a likely destination. I'm interested to see if she goes somewhere she can serve. Also, she's putting out there she wants to play more opposite. Not sure which national championship team is going to want her at that position, but what do I know?
It's highly likely she (her agent, her club coach) was already contacted before she entered the portal, because that's how this stuff works a lot of the time.