By: Katelyn Stevens
Last season’s NCAA Women’s Champions were strong contenders to repeat their first championship win, but there have been disturbances since the beginning of the season.
LSU’s season opener ended with a loss against Colorado State 78-92– the first time in 28 years since the No. 1 team and defending champions lost their opening game.
“We’re not the same team today we were when we won it all,” Mulkey said after the loss in week one. “I don’t know if anything that went on this summer has anything whatsoever to do with [our] locker room. I think [our] locker room is affected by Colorado being a very good team.”
Kim Mulkey and the Tigers have won every game since, making them 4-1, but star forward Angel Reese didn’t dress out for Friday’s game against Southeastern.
Reese played a prominent role in LSU securing their first national title last season. She averaged 23 points and 15.4 rebounds last season on top of procuring 34 double-doubles– NCAA single-season record. Due to her outstanding performances she was named the 2023 Women’s Final Four Most Outstanding Player and secured a spot on the 2023 Women’s AP All-American team.
Why isn’t she on the court, then?
Buzz started circulating around Reese after last Tuesday’s game against Kent when she was benched during the second half. Reese only played 13 minutes and ended with 11 points for the night. When Mulkey was questioned about why she benched the star player she only said “coach’s decision.”
LSU beat SELU 73-50 on Friday, but the Bayou Barbie wasn’t even on the bench to support her teammates. After not playing at all, people are wondering if she’ll make a return for tonight’s game against Texas Southern.
“It’s very obvious Angel was not in uniform,” Mulkey said. “Angel is a part of this basketball team and we hope to see her sooner rather than later … I’m not going to answer anymore. That’s it. That’s all y’all need to know, OK?”
Reese has been as tight-lipped as Mulkey, but she tweeted yesterday, “please don’t believe everything you read.”
Along with the tweet, Reese went to Instagram to repost a video of Colorado coach Deion Sanders saying, “Look at me. What about me would make you think that I care about your opinion of me? Your opinion of me is not the opinion that I have of myself. You ain’t make me, so you can’t break me. You didn’t build me, so you can’t kill me.”
Embed from Getty ImagesSpeculation about Reese’s GPA has also been going around– leading people to believe she could be ineligible to play as of right now.
Reese and Mulkey have been very adamant about keeping the media out of LSU’s business, so we’ll have to wait and see when she’ll touch the court again.
LSU plays Texas Southern in the Maravich Center tonight at 7 p.m.
