LSU welcomed the spotlight. The Tigers embraced it. They wanted to be the hunted.
After all, you don’t start a national title defense by scouring the transfer portal and getting the top recruiting classes in the country to fly under the radar.
The Tigers were the petri dish of modern college basketball under the microscope of watchful eyes, a near-historic collection of talent on a single roster under coach Kim Mulkey. It was as big as possible. Tigers fans were greeted at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center for the first practice of the season by a giant video screen that read in all caps: “COME SEE THE SHOW.”
But two months later, we’re still not sure if it’s a drama, a comedy or a tragedy.
The seventh-ranked Tigers host No. 9 Virginia Tech on Thursday night in what should be considered the best match of the week, one of a few primetime games on ESPN this season. Instead? We’re not talking about the matchup here. We’re not even talking about basketball here.
We’re talking about the other show. Everything else revolves around the defending champions.
We talk about the mysterious absence of LSU’s star player Angel Reese and Mulkey’s cryptic, curt answers to inquiries about the situation. We wonder what this could all mean for a team that was, on paper, the most talented in the country and ranked No. 1 for the year.
There is a lot we don’t know. We don’t know why Reese was benched in the middle of the Kent State game on Nov. 14 or why she hasn’t been seen in an LSU jersey since that night. We don’t know if she’s training with the team. We don’t know why Kateri Poole didn’t make the trip to the Cayman Islands Classic either. We don’t know if the two absences are related. And we don’t know why Mulkey has refused to provide any real clarity on these issues, if only to quell rumors and speculation.
We knew LSU would have their opponents’ best shots this season. But LSU has now created problems for itself.
Mulkey isn’t the first coach in history to bench a star player and be asked about it. And in such situations there are legitimate questions: What happened? How long will these players be out? Are there conditions that must be met to return?
Mulkey stated in postgame press conferences that the media had no right to know those answers. And that’s a perfectly good answer. It might even be the best response for a team with this level of spotlight and star power.
But what Mulkey should know — as someone who has run major programs for nearly 25 years, from a time when few covered women’s basketball to today’s comparatively emerging media landscape — is that the microscope is zooming in. Everything she says is analyzed and dissected. And then it will spread like wildfire.
When the Tigers took the floor three days after the Kent State game without Reese, Mulkey said, “Angel is part of this basketball team and we hope to have her back with the team soon. “I won’t answer any more than that.” Three days later Mulkey was asked about her coaching style after she said the public had no right to know whether Reese practiced with the team. “You always have to deal with issues in the locker room,” she said. She later added: “It’s like a family. Do you think we have the right to know this when raising your own children? There’s a family in that locker room.”
So doesn’t the media have a right to know? Or does it have something to do with locker room issues and discipline? During Reese’s 4 1/2 game absence, Mulkey and LSU simply let those words linger and ponder without clarifying or retracting the statements. Their verbal breadcrumbs have led to the most obvious endpoint: rumors.
Mulkey has repeatedly said she protects her players.
But does it really protect them to leave so much room for interpretation, even though they know all too well where vague statements lead? Even though she says she doesn’t use social media, do you understand what kind of rumors will be doing the rounds the longer this goes on without any clarity or closure or a defined end date? Does it protect the other players on her team if she has the dominant conversation about how this extremely talented group is so focused on anything other than the pursuit of a national title?
There may not be a perfect way to handle this, but if she had clearly stated how long Reese would be sitting and categorized it somehow, that would have helped curb speculation. Aside from missing two key players, there are now questions about how Mulkey is handling (or mishandling) this situation.
Assuming Reese and Poole return at some point, everything will be tested from here on out. Every time, the Tigers look disjointed on the field. Every time Mulkey yells at a player, especially if it’s Reese or Poole. Each time, LSU seems out of sync or disinterested.
These small moments become a weight that can follow a team like a shadow through the season. But that’s the thing about shadows – they appear where the sun shines brightest. And that’s exactly where LSU wanted to be.
The Tigers wanted that spotlight. They wanted the eyeballs. They wanted people to watch.
That’s exactly what they got. And now?
The show must go on.
(Photo by Kim Mulkey and Angel Reese: Grant Halverson / NCAA Photos via Getty Images)