There is no bad blood between Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark, but LSU’s leading scorer is more than happy to play the villain. She understands how the world works and understands her important role in the conversation surrounding women’s college basketball.
Reese, who averaged 23 points and 15.4 rebounds per game last year, will be a fourth-year junior during the 2023/24 season — her second in Baton Rouge after transferring from Maryland. The Tigers roster is absolutely loaded from top to bottom and anything short of a Final Four appearance would be a significant disappointment. There is a lot of pressure on Kim Mulkey and LSU to repeat.
Obviously, one of the teams that might stand in their way is Iowa. Caitlin Clark carried the Hawkeyes to a national championship, but couldn’t topple the Tigers.
Of course, as that game was played last April, Reese famously taunted Clark with the John Cena ‘You Can’t See Me’ hand wave gesture. It sparked a loud and lengthy discourse surrounding the behavior.
A lot of people piled on Reese and called her classless. Meanwhile, she capitalized on the conversation to create a massive international brand through Name, Image and Likeness.
Angel Reese is a household name! As is Caitlin Clark. It is a GREAT thing for the sport.
Reese knows that. Clark knows that.
There is no beef between them.
Angel Reese cleared the air on Caitlin Clark.
Although Reese is ready to move forward and focus on this season, she took a moment to address the controversial viral moment at practice this week.
I love Caitlin; we’ve been competing since we were in AAU. It was always fun, always competitive. One day, hopefully, we could even be teammates. She is a great player, shooter, person and teammate.
— Angel Reese
She laughed while talking about the dichotomy of the conversation surrounding her taunt.
Yeah, LSU loves me, but they might not like her. People can think what they think. Me and Caitlin are cool; we’ve never had any issues. Just knowing I’ve helped grow women’s basketball, and she has, too, that’s all that matters.
— Angel Reese
With that being said, Reese understands how things will be perceived by others. There will always be two sides to every situation. She is more than willing to embrace the negative, because of all of the positive.
The world is always going to have a good girl and a bad girl. I’ll take that I’m going to be the bad guy because I know I’ve grown women’s basketball and inspired people.
— Angel Reese
Reese has two years of eligibility remaining and has not decided whether she will enter the WNBA Draft in 2024 or 2025. The focus is on going back-to-back, which begins with a win over Colorado in Las Vegas to begin the new season on Wednesday, Nov. 1.