WBB Recruiting: in-state 2026 prospect Leah Nordin commits to Wisconsin

Nordin is the second 2026 commit, both from Wisconsin mind you, for Marisa Moseley.

Coming off their biggest win of the season, a double OT thriller at Butler, the good news for the Wisconsin Badgers women’s basketball team kept coming last week. Two Friday nights ago, after leading her team to a victory over conference rival Xavier, 2026 wing Leah Nordin made her verbal commitment to the Badgers.

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“It just felt like home and I'm a Wisconsin kid at heart, so I felt staying home was a great decision,” Nordin said after her announcement.

Nordin is the second commitment for Marisa Moseley’s 2026 class, joining fellow in-state standout CG Giselle Janowski who is coming to Madison out of Pewaukee.

Let’s take a look at what Nordin is going to bring to Madison in two years!

Leah Nordin Fast Facts

• Height: 6-foot-2

• Position: wing

• Number: 22 (AAU)/14 (Shawano)

• Class: 2026

• Hometown: Shawano, Wis.

• High School: Shawano High School

• Club Team: Wisconsin Blaze

• Top 5: Wisconsin, Belmont, Butler, Illinois State, Marquette

• Other Offers: Akron, Eastern Illinois, Green Bay, Milwaukee, South Dakota, UT-Martin, Tulsa

• Highlights: no highlights to embed, but here are her Hudl highlights which have been updated frequently

Courtesy of @leah_nordin14 on Twitter

Leah Nordin Stats (courtesy of WisSports.net)

2024-25 (accurate as of 12/22/24)

• 9 games played

• 27.4 ppg

• 9.1 rpg

• 1.8 apg

• 4.4 spg

• 0.7 bpg

• FG: 104-of-192, 54.2%

• 3P: 6-of-32, 18.8%

• FT: 33-of-49, 67.3%

2023-24 season

• 26 games played

• 21.3 ppg

• 8.4 rpg

• 1.6 apg

• 4.0 spg

• 1.1 bpg

• FG: 223-of-443, 50.3%

• 3P: 30-of-101, 29.7%

• FT: 78-of-126, 61.9%

Rankings/Accolades

• 3rd in Wisconsin on Prep Girls Hoops (class of 2026)

• 4th in Wisconsin by WI Jr. All-Stars (class of 2026)

• Unanimous First Team All-Bay Conference (2023, 2024)

• WBCA DII All-State (2024); WBCA DII Honorable Mention (2023)

• WIAA 2nd Team All-State (2024); WIAA All-State Honorable Mention (2023)

• Run 4 Roses Classic All-Tournament Team (2024)

• Holds multiple single-season records at Shawano (rebounding, steals, points) and the school’s single-game scoring record (40 points, which broke her own record lol); she is also the program’s all-time leading scorer already

Scouting Report

I have watched a bunch of Nordin’s highlights and she is an extremely interesting player. The skillset she is developing at her height is promising and with two more years of high school basketball to play I can easily see her becoming a recruiting steal for the Badgers.

“Leah always makes a coach feel like they can win. I always say Leah is a winner. She finds a way to get the job done,” Lisa Van Wyk told me via email.

Van Wyk is the president and founder of Wisconsin Blaze, the AAU basketball and club volleyball program out of Appleton, Wis. for whom Nordin plays. Van Wyk is also the head coach of Nordin’s team and has been coaching her since 8th grade. Let’s dive in to what Nordin brings to the court!

Looking at her stats you can see that she is a scorer. This year she is averaging north of 27 points per game and is already her high school’s all-time leading scorer with a season and a half left to play before she graduates. The interesting thing to note is how she gets her points.

Nordin isn’t much of a shooter from long-range. Last year she shot just under 30% from deep at Shawano and so far this year she is making under 20% of her threes. When watching her shoot, though, there’s nothing mechanically wrong with her form. In fact, I thought her shot looked good and was shocked when I saw her numbers.

“She has been working on her threes and will have some good 30% games and other times it's just not falling for her, but she is working on that hard and getting lots of reps to make sure she expands her game,” Van Wyk noted when I asked her about Nordin’s offensive game, “I think the more her three-point shot develops the more she will work into that 3 (small forward/wing) position. Right now, she can come off screens and score either with a three or attacking the rim, so I imagine she will continue to expand her game at the next level.”

Van Wyk mentioned that Nordin didn’t start really working on her three-pointer until she was in eighth grade (presumably because she was taller than most of her teammates) so there is still time for her to improve that area of her game. I wish her free throw percentage was higher, but with her solid form and lack of reps I’m prone to agreeing with Van Wyk that Nordin will naturally improve her three-point shot.

An area where Nordin doesn’t need much improvement is finishing around the rim. She can finish with either hand, attacks the rim off the dribble, and is great at putting the ball right back up after securing an offensive rebound. Van Wyk says she is “deadly from inside” and that seems accurate to me.

Standing at 6-foot-2 already, Nordin is athletic and a good rebounder. The Blaze run alley-oop style plays for her because, according to Van Wyk, she can go up and get the ball over defenders and lay it in. She is the type of long, rangy, athletic wing that Wisconsin doesn’t have many, if any, of on their team right now. I asked Van Wyk what position she sees Nordin playing at the next level and she said that college coaches have told her that Nordin will “play the 4 (power forward) right away and possibly the 3 (small forward/wing)” later in her career.

Nordin was moved into a more ball dominant role by Van Wyk last season because she wanted to see her 6-foot-2 post player take “additional reps with the ball in her hand, and opportunities to use her voice as a communicator and leader.” Nordin’s assist numbers aren’t great, but it’s nice to see her working on a versatile tool box of skills.

Van Wyk said she has “dreams of [Nordin] being a 6-foot-2 point guard” because Nordin “gives [her teammates] confidence, direction, and exemplifies what it means to have a ‘no quit’ attitude.” Having a jumbo point guard like that would be a nice bonus for UW to have, but I’m not sure of Nordin is the ideal candidate for that position. However, if she gains a better understanding of ball movement while running an offense I think she can be an effective secondary playmaker for the Badgers.

The final aspect of Nordin’s offensive game is her ball handling. When asked what Nordin needs to work on before college, Van Wyk didn’t hesitate: “definitely her handles.” I’m going to insert her entire answer here because I found it incredibly detailed and insightful:

But the area I would really like to see her develop are her handles. Right now she has a great foundation, and has been putting a ton of time there to develop, but I would like to see her add more advanced tools, like a drop cross, cross step fake, and more step backs into her game. At the next level, if she can punch the ball with different moves and get her opponent on their heels and get more fluid creating space for herself and into her shot, and then next time attack when they overplay, she will continue to mesmerize her fans.

I think Nordin has solid handles for a player her size, but Van Wyk is right that if Nordin wants to be more of a ball handler she does need to improve in that area.

Nordin’s offensive game is more advanced to me than her defense, but I think she has higher potential on the defensive side of the court. For the Blaze she played in an aggressive pressing defensive system last season and at Shawano she is the top of a 1-3-1 zone. Her instincts appear to be top-tier to me and Van Wyk mentioned that Nordin “understands the timing and angles of passes well and can tip a pass on a player she is guarding or step up in the gaps and use her length to deflect or steal a pass.”

I don’t love that Nordin’s high school team plays so much zone, but it’s not Shawano’s job to play a defense that’ll translate well to college, it’s Shawano’s job to try and win high school basketball games. Nordin’s athleticism and size lead me to believe that she’ll be, at worst, an average man defender.

She has all of the physical tools to be a switchable, lockdown defensive menace. “Her speed to react, her athleticism, and her strength is impressive. And she's only getting faster and stronger as she adds more weight to her long frame,” Van Wyk stated.

Nordin and Giselle Janowski are a nice start to Wisconsin’s 2026 recruiting class. Under Marisa Moseley the Badgers haven’t had a ton of success keeping in-state talent home, but that might be changing now. “[Nordin] is an absolutely loyal young lady so I'm not surprised at all she decided to commit to Wisconsin,” Van Wyk pointed out. While it is never a prerequisite to recruit only in-state kids, it’s always a little extra fun when one commits and, hopefully, succeeds.