Girls basketball: Lyons Township’s Nora Ezike sees recruiting take off. ‘It’s been a little chaotic’

Nora Ezike takes copious notes of college coaches she’s talked to through the Notes app on her phone and puts reminders on her calendar after calls are set up.

It’s a good plan for a busy young lady.

Lyons Township’s 6-foot-2 junior, coming off a stellar sophomore season, has seen her recruiting explode this summer.

Ezike estimates she’s received about 15 scholarship offers, including Michigan, Wisconsin, Purdue and DePaul. A student with a 4.0 grade-point average and 5.3 cumulative, Ezike also has offers from Ivy League schools Harvard, Columbia and Princeton.

“It’s been a little chaotic, yeah,” Ezike said. “Especially since June 1.

“June 1 was the first day that coaches were allowed to contact me directly. I get a lot of texts and calls from coaches, take a lot of calls. It hasn’t been too hard to handle, though.”

It perhaps shouldn’t surprise that Ezike can get a handle on a hectic period of her young life. She has a head on her shoulders.

She comes from a family of doctors and aspires to go into medicine, perhaps be an anesthesiologist, or study business.

“She is super mature for her age,” Lyons coach Meghan Hutchens said.

Ezike as a sophomore averaged 11.2 points and 6.7 rebounds per game in her first full varsity season, helping lead Lyons to 28 wins and conference and regional titles.

Blessed with tremendous skill and speed for a girl her size, Ezike seemed to break out as the season progressed. She had 22 points and 17 rebounds in a win over York to clinch the West Suburban Silver title and scored a career-high 24 points in a win over Downers Grove South in the West Suburban crossover championship game. Ezike has been rated the No. 1 player in Illinois’ Class of 2025 by the website Prep Girls Hoops Illinois.

“When she elevates to the basket at certain points of the game, you get chills,” Hutchens said. “Her speed, her elevation to the basket, her finishes, her athleticism, it’s unbelievable. Coaches look at her body size and athleticism and can develop that to what they need. And she’s a smart kid who works hard.”

Ezike said her first big jump in offers came after she was invited to the U-16 Team USA tryouts. She applied for the event and was one of 55 girls from around the country to be invited to compete at the end of May in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

“It was a really good experience, had a lot of great players,” Ezike said. “It was really high intensity. We had two practices a day and each practice was two hours. We did drills, scrimmages and then position playing one of the days. The whole time, every practice was high intensity.”

Ezike visited Harvard a few months ago and took a visit to Wisconsin in June. She plans to take a few more visits this summer and into the fall.

“The most important things are talking to the coaches, seeing the coaches, seeing what I am interested in about their schools, get to know their schools,” Ezike said.

Hutchens said when Ezike was younger she would talk a lot about prestigious schools such as Stanford and Harvard. Hutchens has encouraged her to explore the whole picture.

“I’ve told her you are more than capable of doing really well at those academic schools but let’s look at the basketball side. You have a unique situation in front of you,” Hutchens said. “Who do you want to play for, who do you want to go and play with in building a culture. I think she’s taking it all in. It’s fun for her.”

On the court, Ezike has been working a lot on developing sharper handles while being pressured and being able to drive more, get to the paint and kick out and finish. She’s also working to develop a more consistent shot.

Hutchens has been harping on her that with all the attention and accolades Ezike is receiving, teams will be scheming game plans to stop her. Hutchens has encouraged her to let her offense work through her defense.

“No one is going to catch her in the open court,” Hutchens said. “I’ve told her to be creative, see what you can take from your defense, allow points to come from your defense. She did show some really good growth in that component. Getting an understanding to trust herself on the court when she can do that will come.”

While Ezike is the headliner, Lyons will surround her with plenty of other returning talent.

Seniors Elin O’Brien and Kennedy Wanless and sophomores Emma O’Brien and Avery Mezan are among the other girls back. Gwen Smith is another sophomore who has been pulled up to varsity. The Lions played in summer leagues at Morton College and Montini and also took a trip to Indiana University.

“We have pulled up our youth, spent a lot of time focusing on our discipline and work ethic,” Hutchens said. “We have seen good signs this summer. We have to work on that consistency piece and developing as a team.”