ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The year-long wild experience that has been LSU girls’s basketball is over — for now.
The defending nationwide champion Tigers (31-6) fell one sport in need of returning to the Remaining 4 with a 94-87 loss to Iowa on Monday evening, virtually a yr after beating the Hawkeyes and star Caitlin Clark for the title.
In between, coach Kim Mulkey and her gamers made headlines on and off the courtroom and have become symbols for a brand new, brash era of school stars — none extra so than star ahead Angel Reese.
“Irrespective of which method it went tonight, I do know this was going to be an evening for the ages,” mentioned Reese, who completed with 17 factors, 20 rebounds and 4 assists regardless of spraining her proper ankle within the first half. “And simply with the ability to be part of historical past is nice.”
However the 6-foot-3 junior, who mentioned she has not but determined whether or not to come back again for an additional season, additionally talked in regards to the negatives which have adopted her since she burst onto the scene as a trash-talking, unapologetic, extraordinarily gifted baller throughout final yr’s match.
“I’ve been by way of a lot,” Reese mentioned by way of tears. “I’ve seen a lot. I’ve been attacked so many instances, dying threats, I’ve been sexualized, I’ve been threatened, I’ve been so many issues, and I’ve stood sturdy each single time.”
A couple of video games after a season-opening loss to No. 3 Colorado in Las Vegas, Reese was suspended 4 video games by Mulkey for unspecified, basketball-related conduct.
LSU misplaced a number of key gamers from its nationwide title-winning crew to commencement, together with guard Alexis Morris and ahead LaDazhia Williams.
However Mulkey restocked the roster with high-profile recruits, together with Mikaylah Williams and transfers Hailey Van Lith from Louisville and Aneesah Morrow from DePaul.
All of them finally jelled, with Reese as their chief.
“I’ve by no means seen folks want dangerous issues on somebody as a lot as her, and it doesn’t have an effect on her,” Van Lith mentioned. “She involves follow each day. She lives her life each day. She lives how she desires to stay, and he or she don’t let no person change that. That’s the important thing to life proper there.”
The Tigers bounced again to have a stable season, dropping within the Southeastern Convention Event closing to unbeaten South Carolina. They entered the NCAA Event as a No. 3 seed and have been making an attempt to change into the primary back-to-back champions since UConn received its fourth straight in 2016.
Mulkey continued to be a polarizing determine. The four-time nationwide title-winning coach threatened through the match to sue The Washington Publish over a profile of her that had but to be revealed. Her assaults on the media discovered a extra sympathetic viewers, nonetheless, when she criticized the Los Angeles Occasions for a column characterizing her gamers as villains. The newspaper edited the column, and the author apologized.
Everybody on Mulkey’s roster can come again subsequent yr, if they want, although that’s unlikely.
Sophomore guard Flau’jae Johnson, who scored 23 factors in opposition to Iowa, mentioned she and others who do return will study from Monday’s setback.
“It’s not on a regular basis you get to see gamers like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese,” Johnson mentioned. “I’m simply blessed. Final yr I used to be a freshman seeing the whole lot. This yr I’m a sophomore in a position to contribute. Subsequent yr I’m going to depart my mark, develop the sport.”
Elevating the profile of girls’s basketball is one thing Mulkey mentioned her crew has already completed.
“We’ve modified, folks, we’ve modified. And we’ve modified in so many good methods,” she mentioned. “These younger folks could have a reminiscence of being part of one thing that was this nice tonight, lots of them being part of successful a championship final yr. I can’t describe to you the way good it’s proper now in girls’s basketball. That’s why I wanted this sport might have been on the Remaining 4. Wow. Positive was good for an Elite Eight sport.”
