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Kim Mulkey’s LSU team saw their season get off to a rough start last year after kicking off their quest to repeat as national champions, and Angel Reese has finally broken her silence on an unexpected absence that caused rumors to start flying.
The LSU Tigers headed into the 2023-24 season as the top-ranked women’s basketball team in the country, which made plenty of sense when you consider a squad that vanquished Caitlin Clark in Iowa in the NCAA Tournament final landed a key transfer in the form of Hailey Van Lith, added standout recruit Mikaylah Williams, and brought back Flau’jae Johnson and Angel Reese.
However, LSU suffered a setback in their season opener after getting upset by Colorado, and while they bounced back with a 16-game winning streak, that stretch was marred by the temporary absence of Reese, who was benched for the second half of their contest with Kent State before disappearing for four games.
Neither Reese nor Mulkey shed much light on the situation that sparked some drama after Johnson’s mom asserted it was linked to poor grades (other people baselessly speculated she was pregnant), and it eventually became a fairly distant memory after the “Bayou Barbie” returned to help lead her team to a 26-4 record during the regular season before her college career ended with a loss to Clark and Co. in the Elite Eight.
However, we finally have some insight into what went down after Reese decided to address the hiatus on the first episode of her new podcast Unapologetically Angel.
Angel Reese clears the air about why she missed some time at LSU
Watch full episode here: https://t.co/PRkTaOQ3PO pic.twitter.com/UeZAlx7F9k
— Unapologetically Angel (@angelreeseshow) September 6, 2024
The Chicago Sky rookie firmly denied all of the rumors stemming from the saga while saying she and Mulkey agreed it would be best for everyone involved if she sat out for a bit, saying:
“We lost to [Colorado], and it was just a whole big uproar after…I sat the second half of the Kent State game. Me and Kim Mulkey kind of got into it about something…
After that game, me and her had a conversation, and we talked about moving forward, and it was just best for me to take some time off. It was me and Coach Mulkey being able to have that kind of relationship.”
That settles that.