Women’s Hoops Heat Check is back with Cole Huff and Mitchell Northam. Part 1: Standout Players
Cole: Aneesah Morrow, DePaul
Look, you are worthy of praise whenever you crack 40 points in any level of basketball, whether in a Boys & Girls Club league, an AAU tournament, or college and professional ball — 40 points means you were feelin’ it. And Aneesah Morrow was certainly feelin’ it last Saturday when she dropped 45 big ones against Northeastern. On top of that, she pulled down 13 boards and registered five steals en route to a DePaul win.
And while this is undoubtedly a massive performance, the bigger picture is that nights like these are becoming regular. Maybe not 45-point outings. However, the steals and 30-plus-point double-doubles are — it was Morrow’s third of the season and the fourth time this year she’s reached five steals in a game. With that, she’s played her way into National Player of the Year status, though she did suffer a knee injury that forced her to exit early and miss most of DePaul’s win over Howard on Monday.
Nevertheless, take note of the do-it-all sophomore forward if you haven’t already. You’ll want to lock in on Morrow each time she takes the basketball court.
Mitch: Ta’Niya Latson, Florida State
There were a lot of reasons to doubt Florida State this season. The Seminoles were going through a coaching transition, as Sue Semrau stepped away for good to hand the reins off to Brooke Wyckoff. Three of FSU’s top players last season – Morgan Jones, River Baldwin and Sammie Puisis – transferred to other schools. In the offseason, FSU didn’t really reload, and entered the year with just 10 rostered players.
But one player that the Seminoles did add was Ta’Niya Latson – a freshman from Miami who was named Florida’s Miss Basketball. It seemed apparent that Latson would get plenty of opportunities to play and shine, but could she carry the Seminoles to a winning record?
So far, she’s doing that and so much more. Florida State is 10-1 and Latson has been voted ACC Rookie of the Week for five straight weeks – that’s every week so far this season. She’s one of the five top scorers in the nation, averaging 25.5 points per game. Latson has scored double digit points in every collegiate game she’s played in so far, and most recently poured in 34 points on 19 shots in a win over Texas Southern.
And get this: Since the beginning of the HerHoopStats era in 2009, Latson is the only freshman to average at least 24 points per game while shooting better than 49% from the floor. And we’ve had a lot of great rookies in women’s college basketball in that time, from Elena Delle Donne to Chennedy Carter. Latson is doing something that none of them ever did, and we should be talking more about it.
Latson will get the chance on Sunday to impress on national TV: FSU plays against UConn on Sunday at 1 p.m. on ESPN.
Ta’Niya Latson is 𝐇𝐄𝐑 👀@NiyaLatson | #NoleFAM pic.twitter.com/rk67OHmbDG
— FSU Seminoles (@Seminoles) December 6, 2022
