LSU’s Angel Reese misses two games — without explanation from Kim Mulkey

Angel Reese, who led LSU to a national championship last spring, was missing in action for a second straight game Monday, and the reason for her absence remains a mystery.

“You always have to deal with locker room issues,” Coach Kim Mulkey told reporters after the Lady Tigers’ 106-47 victory over Texas Southern. “That’s just part of coaching. ... That’s just what coaches do. Sometimes you don’t know about it. Sometimes you want to know more than you’re entitled to know. I’m going to protect my players, always. They are more important. It’s like a family. If you do some disciplining of your own children, do you think you’re entitled to know that?”

LSU coach Kim Mulkey talks about Angel Reese after win against Texas Southern: pic.twitter.com/wfYl00hfFN

— WAFB November 21, 2023 She offered no timetable for Reese, the NCAA tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, to return to the Lady Tigers, who are ranked seventh nationally. They travel Wednesday to the Cayman Islands for games against Niagara and Virginia on Friday and Saturday. Mulkey declined to say if she had decided whether Reese would make the trip.

“If I have, I wouldn’t tell you, okay?” she said. “You’re not entitled to that information.”

Reese started each of LSU’s first four games, averaging 17 points and 10.3 rebounds as the team went 3-1. But on Nov. 14 she was benched in the second half of the Lady Tigers’ 109-79 win over Kent State. Mulkey explained at the time that it was a “coach’s decision.” Reese had 11 points and five rebounds.

Speculation about what was going on began to spiral when Reese’s mother and Kia Brooks, the mother of sophomore guard Flau'jae Johnson exchanged Instagram messages. Reese’s mother, Angel Webb Reese, had criticized Brooks’s grammar in an earlier post, to which Brooks responded ( via the Associated Press ), “You definitely know about grammar errors when your daughter got a 2.0-or-less grade point average. ... Stop being petty, fake and hateful, and take responsibility for you and your daughter’s actions.”

Reese, who is nicknamed “Bayou Barbie,” has name, image and likeness endorsements worth over $1 million and is one of the top-earning female college athletes.

After her absence from LSU’s 73-50 victory Friday over Southeastern Louisiana, the junior forward addressed swirling speculation on social media in a brief comment Sunday to her 378,000 followers on X, writing, “Please don’t believe everything you read.”

After Friday’s game, Mulkey tersely told reporters that Reese remains a member of the team. “It’s very obvious Angel was not in uniform. Angel is a part of this basketball team and we hope to see her sooner rather than later,” Mulkey said .

LSU added two transfer portal players and Mikaylah Williams, the nation’s top prep recruit, but the season had a rocky start as the Lady Tigers, the preseason No. 1 team, dropped its season-opener to No. 20 Colorado, falling out of the top five. Mulkey singled out no individual player but said she was “disappointed in some individual players who I thought would be tougher, have a little fight and leadership about them.”