Angel Reese and LSU assistant coach Gary Redus were cutting up in the LSU basketball office this past week, doing an Instagram chat and laughing themselves silly.
Then Reese got serious for a second, issuing a warning to the non-LSU women’s basketball crowd out there:
“Be prepared to be sick of us.”
LSU women’s basketball already had a vibe about the program because of coach Kim Mulkey. Like her “You’ve got to see this” outfits she wore this season, you either think she’s really wonderful or you really don’t.
It was a cute story when Reese — the Bayou Barbie from Baltimore, not Bunkie — led the Tigers to that record 23-0 start this past season, but that story seemingly ended with that 24-point Super Bowl Sunday loss at Fortress South Carolina.
Except it didn’t. LSU regrouped and powered first with defense then offense to its first NCAA title. The Tigers beat Iowa, and controversy bloomed after Reese dished some of Caitlin Clark’s taunting back at her in the game’s closing seconds. Clark later came to Reese’s defense, saying she didn’t think Reese should be criticized, but the incident literally sparked a national debate.
The player Clark taunted in the Elite Eight with a “you can’t see me” hand wave was then-Louisville guard Hailey Van Lith. Now Van Lith is an LSU Tiger, signing her transfer papers Thursday.
According to ESPN, Van Lith is the top talent in the women’s basketball transfer portal this year. The Tigers also hosted former DePaul forward Aneesah Morrow on an official visit this weekend, the top available player in the portal, according to The Athletic.
And Mulkey is back, no less determined than ever. With Reese, Flau’jae Johnson, Van Lith, the nation’s No. 1 high school recruiting class led by Bossier City Parkway’s Mikayla Williams, and Mulkey stirring the gumbo pot, the Tigers could well be poised for a repeat. Right now, LSU sits as co-favorites for the 2024 national title with UConn, which brings back Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd and, well, because it’s UConn.
If LSU adds Morrow, the only player besides Reese to rank in the top 10 nationally in rebounding and scoring last season, the Tigers likely will be the favorite overall. They may be the preseason No. 1 team anyway. If Morrow comes, there can be little doubt that LSU will be atop the polls, and that you will hear the term “superteam” bandied about.
Cue the wailing and gnashing of teeth outside of Louisiana, except for a pocket of folks in Waco, Texas, still carrying a torch for Mulkey for all the winning she brought to Baylor.
Two big ifs face this LSU team. If it stays healthy, and if Mulkey can bring all the strong personalities together like she did for the national championship run, a repeat isn’t only possible, it’s likely.
And a lot of people will just hate it. LSU, it seems, already plays the villain’s role, at least in the Southeastern Conference. What do you think they’ll think of a Mulkey-led team that wins and wins and wins — with attitude and swagger — a year after winning the national championship?
Van Lith simply feeds into that. She brings a mountain of brash self-confidence with her, the only player in the country besides Clark to average 19 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists per game in 2022-23. She won’t be LSUs only ballhandler — the Tigers will have five players who can bring it up court, plus Reese on occasion — but she will help LSU spread the floor, and both take the scoring pressure off of Reese and make it easier for the All-American forward to score.
Asked after losing to Iowa to come up short of a second straight Final Four appearance whether the defeat gave her motivation for next season, Van Lith gave a bracingly frank response (she sounded like she’d already decided to leave), and also said what she thought of being named an honorable mention All-American.
“I’m not motivated by external factors,” she said. “I’m motivated by myself. I always have been. If we’d won the national title this year, I’d have the same amount of motivation.
"I’m not motivated at all by fact they named me honorable mention. I know who I am, and I know what God thinks I am, and God doesn’t think I’m honorable mention, I’ll tell you that right now.”
Will Mulkey be able to get the entire team to pull together again? Van Lith and Reese are two powerful alphas. How will they co-exist? So far, so good.
Reese was in the photo shoots from Van Lith’s visit and making positive comments after Van Lith signed, indicating her happiness at LSU landing another potential All-American.
“Oh yeah,” Reese put on Instagram, “it’s up.”
In case you’re wondering, next year’s women’s Final Four is in Cleveland.
“Let’s go get another 1,” Johnson said on her Instagram account.
Yes, America. Be prepared to be sick of this LSU team.
