BATON ROUGE, Louisiana. – LSU star forward Angel Reese, who missed four games for undisclosed reasons, joins the No. 7 Tigers ahead of their matchup with ninth-ranked Virginia Tech on Thursday night.
Reese foreshadowed her return when she posted a photo on social media of herself inside LSU’s basketball stadium, the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
LSU coach Kim Milkey declined to go into detail about why Reese was not with the team for much of the last two weeks, saying only that it stemmed from “issues locker room” not specified.
Milkey said Wednesday that Reese would play, but would not say whether she would start or come off the bench.
Reese, who is one of the most popular and commercially successful players in her sport, missed games at Southeast Louisiana and against Texas Southern in Baton Rouge before also not accompanying the team to the Cayman Islands for a vacation tournament. LSU beat Niagara and Virginia in the Cayman Classic last weekend.
Reese was also benched for the second half of a victory over Kent State on November 14.
The Tigers (7-1) won every game Reese missed, most by wide margins, and haven’t lost since. dropping their first match in Las Vegas to number 1 at the time. 20 Coloradowhich has since risen to #3.
Reese started LSU’s first four games, averaging 17 points and 10.3 rebounds as the Tigers went 3-1.
Mulkey, a four-time national champion and Hall of Fame coach, defended her decision to withhold details about the nature of Reese’s absence, saying it was an internal team matter whose public didn’t need to know.
Reese was LSU’s on-field leader last season, when the Tigers won the program’s first national title. LSU defeated Virginia Tech in the Final Four before defeating Iowa in the championship game.
Since then, Reese has appeared in numerous national ad campaigns and has racked up sponsorship opportunities worth over $1 million, including with Reebok.
Her popularity comes in part from her combination of feminine style and fierce play. She is known as “Bayou Barbie”, partly because of her painted nails and eyelash extensions, and has expressed an interest in modeling.
Still, she’s feisty on the court, glaring at opponents after knocking away shots, diving on the floor to recover loose balls or celebrating with a short dance move after big baskets. She once blocked a shot with one hand while holding one of her shoes that had come off with the other. She dominated a second-round NCAA tournament game against Michigan last March with dried blood on her face and a large lip covered in gauze after being inadvertently hit in the mouth.
Last season, she averaged 23 points and 15.4 rebounds – and set an NCAA record with 34 double-doubles in a season.
But while her unfiltered public persona has made her a charismatic figure in women’s basketball, it has also sparked controversy.
Reese is known for saying that she is “unapologetically me”, can accept being portrayed as “the bad guy” and doesn’t back down from criticism that some of her actions offend fans and competitors in the wrong way.
This happened at the end of last season’s national championship game, when she made a triumphant gesture to Hawkeyes star Caitlin Clark. And subsequently, when she took issue on social media with first lady Jill Biden’s suggestion that LSU and Iowa will be invited to the White House because their confrontation was so exciting.
Reese said she preferred to visit former President Barack Obama’s family, but she ended up attending. LSU Celebration with President Joe Biden and First Lady.
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