Angel Reese will return to LSU women’s basketball after missing 4 games for disciplinary reasons.
Reese will be in the starting lineup when no. 7 LSU takes on ninth-ranked Virginia Tech on Thursday, Nov. 30.
Reese, 21, missed four games while on a 2-week suspension for “locker room issues”. She missed games against Southeastern Louisiana and Texas Southern, and she did not accompany the team to the Cayman Islands for a Thanksgiving tournament.
LSU defeated Niagara and Virginia in the Cayman Islands Classic last weekend.
Reese was benched before the second half of LSU vs Kent State game on Nov. 14. The Tigers won all of their games without Reese.
Outkick.com reported that Reese was suspended because she needed an “attitude adjustment”.
Speculation ran rampant on social media after Reese’s mom, also named Angel Reese, and teammate Flau’jea Johnson’s mother, Kia Brooks, snatched each other’s wigs on Instagram.
Reese’s mom wrote on IG:
“Folks pls do not send me long text msgs with a bunch of grammatical errors it gives me a headache. How do I know you said what you said if I can’t understand what you’re saying?”
Johnson’s mom fired back:
“You definitely know about grammar errors when your daughter got a 2.0 or less GPA… Stop being petty, fake and hateful, and take responsibility for you and your daughter’s actions.”
Reese is known to say she is “unapologetically me,” and she can accept being portrayed as “the bad guy”.
LSU coach Kim Mulkey was defensive when asked about Reese’s benching. “Angel was not in uniform tonight, and Angel is a part of this basketball team,” Mulkey said. “And Angel will be back sooner than later.”
Mulkey seemed to confirm that Reese was suspended due to “locker room issues.”
“You always have to deal with locker room issues. That’s just part of coaching,” Mulkey said on Nov. 20.
“In 40 years I can never think of a time where I didn’t have to deal with issues. That’s what coaches do. Sometimes y’all know about ’em and sometimes you don’t. Sometimes you want to know more than you’re entitled to know.”
She added, “I’m going to protect my players, always. They are more important — it’s like a family.”
Coach Mulkey was critical of individual players when LSU was upset, 92-78, by then-No. 20 Colorado in their season opener.
“I’m disappointed and surprised in some individual players that I thought would just be tougher and have a little fight and leadership about them,” Mulkey said after the game on Nov. 6.
“You live with poor shooting, you live with a tough night offensively. What I don’t live with is just guts and fight and physical play [not being there],” she added.
