LSU Star Aneesah Morrow Had to Leave Chicago to Grow up. She’s Ready to Go Home Again.

“Some people let that stuff bother them,” she says. “But I let it motivate me. They said I couldn’t play in the SEC, but now I’m dominating the SEC. That’s the goal I set for myself and I’ll do it whether the praise is there or not.”

Morrow never used to say things like that. At least not to the outside world. Growing up, she was a quiet observer, one who let her actions speak for themselves. They still do — Morrow is averaging a double-double with 17.8 points and 13.7 rebounds per game — but now, she’s learned to advocate for herself as well, in case people need a reminder. “You can show it and speak on it at the same time,” she says. 

Morrow didn’t discover that voice until she went to LSU. Now, as she gets ready to return home, the senior is reminded of just how far she’s come. 

Aneesah is the only one of her siblings born in Chicago, which is fitting, her mom Nafeesah says, given how much she’s embraced the city. Everything she does is for her family and her city. On Thursday, after two years away, Chicago is getting ready to celebrate the star’s return. 

In a game against University of Illinois Chicago, Morrow will play in her native city for the first time since transferring. She will have more than 30 family members in the crowd, and kids from her elementary school and high school to watch her jersey be retired. For Morrow, Chicago is more than just a place she grew up. It’s who she is. That chip on her shoulder, the one that never leaves no matter how much success she has? That comes from her hometown. 

Nafeesah Morrow gets it. She feels the same way about Chicago, which is why after years in Nebraska, she moved back to the place she grew up, raising Aneesah and the rest of the Morrow children the same way her parents raised her. “My dad always said, ‘If I raise you in the city of Chicago, baby, you can live anywhere and you’ll do fine,” ‘ Nafeesah says. When it was time for college, Aneesah, a self-described homebody, wasn’t ready to live anywhere else. She needed to stay close, so she opted for DePaul. 

The city already knew how talented she was. As a junior, Morrow led Simeon High School to its first girls’ basketball state championship. It was already a well-known program on the boys’ side, producing players like Derrick Rose and Jabari Parker, but Morrow raised the girls’ program to prominence. DePaul coach Doug Bruno knew about Morrow long before her high school dominance. He tried to recruit her mother three decades earlier and started watching Aneesah in middle school. At the time, it felt like destiny that she ended up at the hometown university. 

Everything in her life had been shaped by her city and family. Morrow first picked up a basketball on the sidelines of her older sibling’s practice. She remembers making her first basket as a second-grader and then crying because league rules meant she wasn’t allowed to officially join a team for two more years. But she stayed on those sidelines, dribbling and learning as much as she could about the game. 

Nafeesah knew Aneesah would be good at basketball, because practically everyone in the family is. Nafeesah is one of five girls and all of her sisters went to college on basketball scholarships as well. While at Nebraska, Nafeesah met Ed Morrow, a linebacker on the Huskers football team. It would be impossible for their kids not to like sports, so as the Morrow siblings grew up, Nafeesah and Ed ran the household like a Division I athletic program. 

They showed up at least 15 minutes early for everything because being late was not an option. Grades were of the utmost importance and almost every evening they held study table for their kids, just like they themselves did in college. It worked. Everyone graduated with 4.0 GPAs or better. Aneesah’s two older sisters both finished high school with straight A’s and 4.2 GPA’s, but a pesky B ruined Aneesah’s transcript for years. That’s another thing about growing up in a house like the Morrows — competition is inevitable and encouraged. In the end, Aneesah won. 

“She came home her senior year and had all A’s and a 4.3 GPA,” Nafeesah says. “She beat them, and she made sure we knew it. We all chuckled about that, but at the same time, we were proud, because it was a big deal for her.”

Aneesah has a habit of taking things to the next level. She kept her grades perfect at DePaul, making the honor roll in both seasons, something she is proud to say has continued at LSU. In high school she vowed to make history by winning a state title. Once she did that, Morrow proved she could stay home and be successful by winning Freshman of the Year. When it was time to move on, the quiet, homebody from Chicago leveled up again, this time by going all the way to Baton Rouge.

“She’s playing at a level that no one in this family ever has,” Nafeesah says. “It’s absolutely amazing. We have a lot of athletes in this family, but no one has made it like she has.”

To really make it, Aneesah had to leave Chicago, whether she was ready or not. At DePaul, when things didn’t go her way, Aneesah could drop everything and head to her parents’ house for advice and a home-cooked meal. At LSU, she has had to figure it out on her own. “Now I’m hours away and it’s like, “OK, what can I do? How do I speak up for myself and use my voice?’ Leaving forced me to grow up,” she says. 

The process started even before she officially left. Aneesah didn’t consult her family about entering the transfer portal — “No one believes us, but it’s true,” Nafeesah says — and she didn’t seek their advice when choosing a new school, either. 

“We knew that whatever decision she made would be a mature one, and it would be something she would stick by,” Nafeesah said. “She told us she was going to LSU and it was the right place for her.”

Since transferring, Aneesah’s game has become more polished, but her basketball skills didn’t need much work. She’s still the same tenacious rebounder and do-it-all player that dominated at DePaul. 

“She’s a walking double-double,” LSU coach Kim Mulkey says. “We’ve had a lot of great players, but what separates Aneesah is the rebounding. She just gets rebound after rebound after rebound. She gets rebounds over people who are taller than her, she works hard, she never gets fatigued. She can face-up, she can go down low. She’s just a joy to coach.”

In LSU’s 91-64 win over Seton Hall on Tuesday, the last game before her homecoming, Morrow had 26 points and 19 rebounds. She grabbed rebounds and led the fastbreak. She finished through contact and found open teammates operating in the high-low. None of that is new. But this is: Morrow’s voice could be heard throughout the arena. When Sa’Myah Smith finished a hard bucket and was fouled, it was Morrow who screamed “And-one!” When another teammate didn’t run back on defense, Morrow got in her face, clapping her hands to inspire an increase of effort. She approaches each teammate differently, something learned from when she would timidly watch her siblings on the sidelines of their practices. 

“I always try to observe my teammates,” she says. “With the portal being the way that it is you got to learn different personalities. You’ve got to understand that, of course, everyone has different upbringings, and you have to challenge each one of your teammates differently.”

Chicago shaped her, but it can’t take credit for everything. Her newfound voice comes from growing up, leaving home and finding herself at LSU. And when she returns to Chicago on Thursday, the city will see a new version of Aneesah Morrow. A better version. One that she created all on her own.