NCAAW: Aneesah Morrow has the motor and work ethic for a WNBA future

The LSU Tigers (16-0; 1-0 SEC) have certainly had their fair share of the spotlight in recent years. The 2023 NCAA champion Tigers are enjoying their most successful stretch since the early 2000s, when they reached the Final Four in five consecutive seasons; LSU is currently ranked No. 6 in the country by the Associated Press and is once again regarded as one of the top teams in the highly-competitive SEC entering the new year.

It’s no coincidence that LSU’s rise has been on the backs of players who happen to be household names. Like Seimone Augustus and Sylvia Fowles before them, Angel Reese (now in the WNBA) and Flau’jae Johnson are two of the most instantly recognizable players in the country, and while their social media presence is undeniably massive, it’s their production on the court that has led LSU back to prominence.

Add Aneesah Morrow to that list. The former DePaul Blue Demon transferred to LSU prior to her junior season to compete for a national championship, and her individual strengths as a player—namely, a relentless work ethic and undeniable physicality in the paint and on the boards—has further elevated how Kim Mulkey’s Tigers want to play: quickly and aggressively.

Now a senior, there are few areas of the game Morrow doesn’t impact. She’s rarely the biggest player on the court, but she almost never gets outworked, and it shows up in the stat sheet: Morrow has been described as a “double-double machine,” and recently moved into a tie for fourth place in NCAA history with 88 of them. Such numbers have understandably put her in WNBA Draft conversation, so let’s take a deeper look at Morrow’s credentials as a future pro.

Honors and statistics

Morrow’s status as a hugely productive player was cemented long before she arrived at LSU. She posted averages of 28.4 points, 14.3 rebounds and 4.6 assists as a senior in high school, leading Chicago’s Simeon to a state championship and earning lofty praise as a recruit by Prospects Nation and MaxPreps.

Morrow then burst onto the collegiate basketball scene as a freshman at DePaul, averaging 21.9 points and a Division I-leading 13.8 rebounds per game en route to USBWA National Freshman of the Year and All-Big East First Team honors. She stuffed the stat sheet again as a sophomore, ranking fourth in Division I in scoring (25.7 points) and sixth in rebounding (12.2 rebounds) while once again making her way onto the All-Big East First Team. Morrow also earned a nod as an All-American by the USBWA and Associated Press and was a finalist for the Katrina McClain Award, given to the best power forward in the country.

While Morrow hasn’t had quite as large of a role at LSU, she’s been no less impactful. In her first season with the Tigers, Morrow was named to the All-SEC First Team after averaging 16.4 points, 10 rebounds and 2.5 steals per game and powering LSU to an Elite Eight appearance in the 2024 NCAA Tournament. She was also a finalist for the Cheryl Miller Award (the small forward equivalent of the Katrina McClain Award) and was deemed an honorable mention All-American by the USBWA, WBCA and Associated Press.

Morrow’s relentless effort is reflected in her scoring and rebounding numbers

When describing Morrow’s game, almost everything stems from how hard she works. It goes without saying that a player isn’t going to put up the numbers Morrow does—she’s averaging 17.9 points, 14 rebounds and 2.6 steals per game thus far as a senior—with talent alone.

For Morrow, though, outworking her opponents is a given. At 6-foot-1, she’s often at a height disadvantage when competing against SEC frontcourts, but you wouldn’t know it from watching her play. Morrow has recorded a double-double in all but two of the games she’s played this season, and she’s currently leading Division I in rebounds per game; according to Synergy Sports, nearly a quarter of her offensive possessions (24.2 percent) are coming on putback opportunities.

She’s far from just a rebounding specialist, though. Morrow’s physicality on the boards may be akin to that of a bull in a china shop, but she also has the kind of offensive repertoire that makes her a problem for bigger players who can’t match her foot speed. The range on her jumpshot extends beyond the free throw line, and she can explode off the dribble in either direction, often resulting in drawn fouls at the rim.

“Morrow is a double-double machine,” commented Mulkey after a recent LSU win against Seton Hall. “She can shoot the 3-ball, [but] you don’t have to have her shoot the 3-ball … she can face you up as an undersized post player.”

Mulkey also praised Morrow’s defense, which may be an underappreciated part of her game. The same energy and nose for the ball that make her a force on the glass carry over to her work off the ball, where she’s averaged at least 2.5 steals per game in every collegiate season. Morrow may not have the height to be a consistent shot-blocker, but her aggressive presence on defense is felt nonetheless for an LSU team that’s posting a steal rate of 12.1 percent (Her Hoop Stats).

“That’s my mindset going into every game — that my teammates are going to be able to depend on me to score, and if not scoring then I have to do something else defensively,” Morrow said.

It’s not often, of course, that she isn’t scoring. Morrow is a key cog in LSU’s attack, and she’s posting career-highs in shooting percentage (52.9 percent) and free throw rate (16.3 percent) as a senior. She’s even made a handful of 3-pointers, which were a big part of her shot selection at DePaul but have been mostly discouraged at LSU.

Morrow’s level of production and collegiate pedigree have made her a popular choice on WNBA mock draft boards, where she’s frequently listed as being chosen in the first round. Her height as a frontcourt player may give WNBA teams pause, and they’ll need to be confident that she’ll be able to play more on the perimeter as a pro. Morrow’s motor and instincts are not in question, however, and the way she approaches the game at the collegiate level suggests that she’ll be a quick study wherever she lands.

Watch her play

LSU may have had a comfortable non-conference schedule, but things will get much more interesting in a hurry for the Tigers as they begin SEC play. They’ll take on No. 15 Tennessee on Thursday, Jan. 9 (SEC Network+) in what should be an exciting, high-scoring game. Later in January, LSU will play No. 2 South Carolina—a must-see rivalry game that will be televised nationally on ESPN.

Further down the road for LSU are key matchups against No. 9 Oklahoma (Jan. 30; ESPN2), No. 5 Texas (Feb. 16; ABC) and No. 16 Kentucky (Feb. 23; ESPN). How Morrow and the Tigers perform in these games will surely influence how they’re seeded in the 2025 NCAA Tournament, which will begin on March 19; ESPN’s Charlie Creme currently projects them as a No. 2 seed.

All statistics, team records and rankings for the 2024-25 NCAA season are current through Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025.