SMU is essentially put together the core of the TAV Black team from the class of 24 that also had Spears and Suli Davis playing up. Suli has just committed to SMU, they already have Favor and Livings, adding Ames will just be another piece to that puzzle.
As for setting, maybe one day coaches will be more concerned with being able to set bad passes to still be able to run middles and an effective offense. In the portal I would be looking for setters that set their middles to a high hitting % and cross check that with what passing rating that teams backrow had. IE if the team passed below a 2 but yet the middles still hit over .300 that tells me that setter is very skilled at getting the balls to the middle from anywhere on the court. Maybe you give up some block but whats more important?