Angel Reese was not seen with LSU women’s basketball on Friday night. The Tigers played at Southeastern Louisiana in Hammond, Louisiana— which is about an hour away from campus in Baton Rouge.
Reese did not take the court during warmups. She was not in the starting lineup or on the bench.
Reese did not travel with the team at all.
(UPDATE: Kim Mulkey gave an extremely sassy statement about the ongoing situation after the game.)
The mysterious absence came after Mulkey benched Reese on Tuesday. The third-year head coach called it a “coach’s decision” at the time. Reese reportedly sat because of an attitude issue.
Five-star freshman Mikaylah Williams popped off for 42 points in the win over Kent State while Reese stayed on the bench for the entire second half. As frustrating as it may have been, the latter showed great character by taking the high road on Instagram after the incident.
To take matters from bad to worse, Reese’s mother (accidentally?) sparked some serious drama after her daughter was benched. Teammate Flau’jae Johnson’s mother Kia Brooks laid into the Reese family and claimed that Angel has a truly horrific GPA.
True or not, we don’t know. Either way, it’s not a good look for the reigning national champions.
Their drama reached the national level and WNBA players started to chime in. Some of them went to LSU. Some of them did not. Everybody had their popcorn.
Reese may or may not be suspended. Based on her absence from the team, it appears to be that she is. We don’t know for sure.
Mulkey has an incredibly talented roster, even without Reese. She does what she wants without hesitation. That is exactly what is happening here.
Something happened. Reese is involved. Mulkey is handling it her way.
No further information has been provided. We don’t have answers.
Hopefully Reese is okay.