Why isn’t LSU star Angel Reese with Tigers in Cayman Islands? When might she return?

LSU star Angel Reese appears as if she will not play in the No. 7 Tigers’ third consecutive game, as she was not seen with the program on Thursday ahead of the Cayman Islands Classic, according to the Associated Press. LSU is set to face Niagara at 1:30 p.m. ET on Friday and Virginia on Saturday at 5 p.m. ET.

Reese, the Most Outstanding Player at last year’s Final Four, last played Nov. 14, in LSU’s 109-79 win over Kent State. That night, she finished with 11 points and five rebounds in 14 minutes of action — all season-lows. She was benched in the second half, though neither Reese or coach Kim Mulkey has provided a specific public explanation as to why.

What has Mulkey said about why Reese is absent?

Mulkey has declined to provide much detail about Reese’s ongoing absence. When asked for an explanation following the team’s win over Kent State, she said she “could” provide one, “but I won’t. It was just a coach’s decision.” After LSU’s 73-50 victory over Southeastern Louisiana last Friday, Mulkey addressed Reese’s absence by saying, “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.”

Following the Tigers’ 106-47 win over Texas Southern on Monday, Mulkey added that “You always have to deal with locker room issues. That’s just part of coaching. 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 them, and sometimes you don’t. 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. Let me ask you this, if you do some disciplining of your own children, do you think we’re entitled to know that? That’s a family in that locker room...Those kids are like my children, and I’m not gonna tell you what you don’t need to know. And that’s just the way I address things.”

What has Reese said?

Publicly, Reese has been almost entirely silent on the situation. She has not released a formal statement or addressed reporters regarding her absence. However, on Nov. 19 she wrote on X , formerly Twitter, to “please don’t believe everything you read.”

She also later posted a video on her Instagram story of Colorado football coach Deion Sanders, in which Sanders says: “Look at me. What about me would make you think that I care about your opinion of me? Your opinion of me is not the opinion that I have of myself. You ain’t make me, so you can’t break me. You didn’t build me, so you can’t kill me.”

Who else might be involved?

In what might be a related, or entirely unrelated matter, key LSU reserve guard Kateri Poole has also appeared to not travel with the Tigers to the Cayman Islands either, with none of the videos or photographs posted on LSU’s official team social media channels showing the guard. Poole played five minutes, a season-low, in LSU’s win over Southeastern Louisiana. She was benched for the entirety of its game against Kent State and did not play in its win over Texas Southern. The junior guard played 22.3 minutes per game last season, shooting 36.6 percent from the field. Like Reese, she transferred into the program, joining the Tigers after two seasons with Ohio State. The two are long-time friends and visited LSU together when they both entered the transfer portal.

The mothers of Reese and guard Flau’jae Johnson also posted pointed messages as the Tigers forward was sidelined. On Instagram stories posted last week, Reese’s mother, also named Angel, complained about lengthy text messages with grammatical errors, only to have Johnson’s mother Kia Brooks respond to both members of the Reese family. “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,” Brooks wrote.

Former LSU guard Alexis Morris, who graduated last spring after being a member of the program’s title-winning team, has posted a series of messages on the topic. Her latest, as of Friday morning, read “free Angel”

FREE ANGEL

— Alexis Morris November 24, 2023

How has Reese performed this year and when might she return?

Reese entered the season looking to build on a 2022-23 campaign that saw her set an NCAA-record with 34 double-doubles and lead the SEC during conference play in scoring and rebounding. She was excited about the team’s revamped roster, which saw Louisville’s Hailey Van Lith and DePaul’s Aneesah Morrow transfer in, and added top-recruit Mikayla Williams as a freshman.

“I wanted a super-team,” Reese told prior to the season. “They want greatness and I want greatness. They want a national championship and so do I. So why not do it all together?”

Through four games this year, Reese is averaging 17 points and 10.3 rebounds per contest, while shooting 46.9 percent from the field. While specifics regarding her future are unclear, the Tigers host No. 9 Virginia Tech in a Final Four rematch on Thursday. Tipoff for that contest is set for 9 p.m. ET.

(Photo: Maddie Meyer / Getty)