Angel Reese has demonstrated time and time again that she will not be silent and will not shy away from being the vocal leader when she sees or hears anybody taking shots at her or her team.
While LSU is currently in the NCAA Tournament when an article in the Los Angeles Times was dubbed LSU “basketball villains” and UCLA “America’s sweethearts” garnered a ton of attention. The article portrayed Saturday’s matchup as “good versus evil. Right versus wrong. Inclusive versus divisive.”
Angel Reese, as well as her teammates were paying attention and used it.
“We’re the good villains,” Reese told reporters after LSU’s 78-69 win over UCLA on Saturday, via ESPN.com. “Everybody wants to beat LSU. Everybody wants to be LSU. You’ve got to realize like we’re not any regular basketball team. We’re just changing the game.
“We’re doing the unknown. Me being able to be on the court but also off the court, I like to model and do other things. I can do both. Flau’jae [Johnson] can do both. Aneesah [Morrow] can do both. We can all do both. That’s what people don’t believe in. They don’t think that we’re focused, and we prove every single night when we get between those lines, we’re focused.”
Reese also threw more shade at that LA Times article as she took to her Instagram and posted the below picture:
The above post that Angel Reese displayed was milk and cookies on one side of a table with a piece of paper that read “VS” in the middle and bottles of Frank’s Red Hot on the other side.
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The milk and cookies and red hot were referenced in the article.
“This isn’t just a basketball game, it’s a reckoning. Picking sides goes well beyond school allegiance. Do you prefer America’s sweethearts or its dirty debutantes? Milk and cookies or Louisiana hot sauce? The coach who embraces reporters or the one who attacks them? The tender star player or the one who taunts?”
LSU head coach Kim Mulkey, who was the subject of a Washington Post profile also addressed the L.A. Times article while speaking to reporters after the game, saying it crossed the line.
“The one thing I’m not going to let you do, I’m not going to let you attack young people, and there were some things in this commentary that you should be offended by as women,” Mulkey said. “It was so sexist. It was good versus evil in that game today. Evil? Called us dirty debutantes? Are you kidding me?”
LSU star Hailey Van Lith took offense to that portrayal, labeling it as “being racist toward my teammates.”
“We do have a lot of Black women on this team, and unfortunately, that bias does exist still today, and a lot of the people that are making those comments are being racist towards my teammates,” said Van Lith, who is white. “I’m in a unique situation where I see with myself, I’ll talk trash and I’ll get a different reaction than if Angel [Reese] talks trash. I have a duty to my teammates to have their back. Some of the words that were used in that article were very sad and upsetting.”
Following their comments, the LA Times removed parts of the column due to the intense blowback.
Angel Reese And LSU Are Headed For A Rematch Against The Iowa Hawkeyes
LSU, the reigning national champion, is now headed to the Elite Eight where we will see Angel Reese face off against Caitlin Clark and Iowa in a rematch of last year’s title game. It’s happening much earlier in the tournament but the hype is just as big.
Reese and the Tigers have a chance to further cement their legacy by coming out victorious in this game and moving on to the Final Four.
