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Now, a few weeks into her second season in the WNBA, her first offseason in Connecticut is paying off. As of Tuesday, she\u2019s tied with Washington\u2019s Kiki Iriafen with a league-leading three double-doubles to start the season.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI hear a lot of chatter about me being undersized, and it’s not really about size for me. It’s always about heart at the end of the day,\u201d Morrow said. \u201cAnd it might be clich\u00e9 for the ones that are shorter to say it, but you don’t see someone that’s around my height, 5-11, close to 6-1, grabbing 16 rebounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet’s just be honest. That’s not something that you see on a consistent basis. That is something that takes a lot of will. It takes a lot of heart to do that, and a lot of hard work.\u201d<\/p>\n
While winning the WNBA Championship is the goal every season, Morrow has her sights set on an individual award this summer \u2013 Most Improved Player.<\/p>\n
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The forward\u2019s offseason commitment to her game, both in Uncasville and through Athletes Unlimited, is evident as she\u2019s averaging early career-highs across the board. Off the court, her Sun teammates notice a difference too, as Morrow is more open, wanting to lead and carrying herself with new found confidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to have fun playing the sport that I love, and I pour so much into and put my time into,\u201d said Morrow. \u201cThere was a lot of years that I didn’t have fun playing the sport that I love, and now that I’ve got that, I’m not going to let anyone strip me of that, no matter who you are, what authority you have; it’s not going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morrow was drafted No. 7 overall by Connecticut in April of 2025. She had a fine rookie campaign, starting in 23 of the team\u2019s 41 games and averaging 7.7 points and a team-high 6.9 rebounds in 18.9 minutes per game.<\/p>\n
But as the Sun ended the 2025 season missing the playoffs for the first time in nine years, Morrow knew there was more in her. Instead of spending the offseason back home getting time away from the court, she committed to staying in Connecticut throughout the winter to see just how far she could elevate her game.<\/p>\n
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\u201cShe’s like 22, 23 years old, but she thinks like a 35-year-old. She’s very mature beyond her years,\u201d said the Sun\u2019s Head of Player Development, Chaz Franklin. \u201cSo, I wasn’t surprised (that she decided to stay). I wouldn’t say impressed, because that’s kind of the thing that I\u2019ve come to expect from Aneesah.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a quick trip home to see family after the WNBA season ended, Morrow returned to Uncasville in the fall and began to put in work. Franklin and Morrow worked out in the gym four to five days a week, balancing basketball drills with conditioning workouts. Mornings were spent doing ball handling and shooting drills in addition to their pre-workout walks, where Franklin and Morrow spoke openly about her goals with an emphasis on gratitude and remaining present in the journey.<\/p>\n
\u201cAneesah is a workhorse,\u201d said Franklin. \u201cShe’s from the South Side of Chicago, and so she carries an incredible work ethic and approach to work and a level of grit that is honestly uncommon in this league and certainly for someone her age. \u2026 She’s the person that’s always in the gym. And even when she’s not here working, she’s somewhere in a nondescript gym in Chicago, working and lifting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morrow began the offseason wanting to expand her game outside of the frontcourt. While she always played against bigs in college, she wanted to take advantage of her size and be able to step out and play small forward. \u201cI want to be a mismatched nightmare,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
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That meant improving her 3-point shooting.<\/p>\n
Morrow averaged 1.8 3-point attempts last season as a rookie, finishing the year with a 24.0 shooting percentage from 3-point range. Franklin coached her through her frustration on the perimeter and taught her to quickly shake off misses, not letting one miss mentally cloud the next attempt.<\/p>\n
Four games into the 2026 season, Morrow is shooting from the perimeter without hesitation. She\u2019s averaging 14.3 attempts per game and a 29.4 shooting percentage from the arc.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you’re putting reps in, of course, the confidence is going to come,\u201d Morrow said. \u201cI feel like my confidence is at an all-time high right now of just being able to go out there and have fun while also putting myself in the best positions offensively and defensively.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Many of Morrow\u2019s Sun teammates left Uncasville after the season ended and rarely returned throughout the offseason. During her off days this winter, Morrow said she\u2019d spend time alone at her apartment relaxing with her dogs. It was in those quiet days that she learned to feel more comfortable in her journey. Just as she was putting in the work on the court, she spent time learning about herself and becoming a leader.<\/p>\n
The Sun lost the majority of its 2025 roster to free agency this offseason. Morrow is one of just five returners, making her a young leader despite her lack of experience in the league.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast season, I was very closed off,\u201d Morrow admits. \u201cI’m very observant, kind of like the shy person, but I’ve been able to be extroverted (now) and just be around great people overall that pour into me, and I can pour into them. \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to be a leader at LSU, and just being able to come here and transition to it, being able to know that I am young, but I also have a lot of knowledge, and I’m very intellectual, and being able to know that you can teach people that are older than you and you can listen as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
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In February, Morrow and Franklin moved down to Nashville to take part in Athletes Unlimited. Franklin was hired by the league to be a coach, while Morrow used the opportunity to put her new training to use.<\/p>\n
Morrow finished second in the league in points (17.58), rebounds (12.25) and steals (1.75) per game. She was named game MVP six times and earned the league\u2019s All-Defensive Team honors. And thanks to AU\u2019s weekly roster switch-ups, Morrow got to practice her leadership skills as a team captain.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was forced to use her voice,\u201d Franklin said of Morrow\u2019s time in AU. \u201cShe leads by example, so we’re really trying to work on helping her use her voice. We talked about her being a defensive quarterback for the team, calling out all the ball screens, calling out the\u00a0coverages, empowering her team. She’s an energetic player, but the next level for Aneesah Morrow is transferring that energy to her teammates.\u201d<\/p>\n
In April, Morrow began her second training camp with the Sun. Unlike last year, when she felt her presence shrink among a roster full of experienced veterans, Morrow said she feels more comfortable this season. She doesn\u2019t overthink nor shy away from making her voice heard among rookies or the more-experienced players.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI’m definitely seeing her come out of her shell, and I love it,\u201d Sun guard\u00a0Saniya Rivers said. \u201c\u2026I think she’s really tapped into herself as far as mentally and emotionally. I think she’s not allowing the outside presence or like relationships or anything like that to really impact what she has going on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morrow is vocal about her goal of winning the league\u2019s Most Improved Player award this season. On the court, her motivation is clear. She\u2019s a more productive scorer and is chasing rebounds with even more aggression.<\/p>\n
During the Sun\u2019s home-opening loss to Seattle, Morrow grabbed a career-high 16 rebounds (including a career-high 13 defensive boards) to pair with 17 points and three made 3-pointers. That game started a streak of three-straight double-double performances for the forward.<\/p>\n
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\u201cAneesah is gonna be Aneesah and keep doing what Aneesah does, and I love it,\u201d Rivers said. \u201cShe’s a dog. She has that dog mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aneesah Morrow of the Connecticut Sun drives the ball during the fourth quarter of the season opener against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[13590,13589,99,434],"class_list":["post-652309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-all-daily-sites","tag-ct-insider","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}