LSU women’s basketball played without Kateri Poole for the fifth-straight game on Sunday afternoon. The puzzling saga surrounding the Tigers’ key reserve continues.
Head coach Kim Mulkey refuses to provide an explanation for the absence so nobody knows what is going on. Hopefully everything is okay. Speculation and conjecture will continue to run rampant until any semblance of clarity is provided, which does not seem to be coming any time soon.
Poole, a fourth-year junior, was a five-star prospect in the women’s college basketball recruiting Class of 2020 and was ranked as a top-25 player in her class. She initially committed to Ohio State and later transferred to LSU after two seasons in Columbus.
The 5-foot-8 guard averaged 22.3 minutes per game during the national championship run last season.
This year has been a different story.
Poole played just 12.8 minutes per game in four of nine games before disappearing from the lineup and the bench. Mulkey kept her out of the lineup against Kent State in mid-November and called it a “coach’s decision.”
At that point, Angel Reese’s sabbatical began. Kateri Poole actually stayed with the team for its next game but played just five minutes against Southeastern Louisiana. And then she was gone.
Reese was back in the lineup against Virginia Tech on Nov. 30. Poole, who Kim Mulkey later clarified remains on the roster, was not.
That was 10 days ago. It has been more than a week since the Tigers last played as they took final exams.
LSU returned to the hardwood at home against Louisiana-Lafayette on Sunday. Poole did not.
There is no indication as to when No. 55 might be allowed back on the sideline. Considering that Reese was allowed to be in the gym and practiced a few times during her non-suspension suspension, Poole might be with the team during the week. Just not during games.
We don’t know. Neither Mulkey nor the team will say. Why?