Following a 4 game absence from the Tigers’ lineup, star forward Angel Reese is set to rejoin her team ahead of their matchup with ninth ranked Virginia Tech Thursday night.
“It’s a boost having her back,” head coach Kim Mulkey said at a Wednesday news conference. “She’s a tremendous player, one of the best in the country. She gives us a good matchup with Kitley, but it’s not just for this game, it’s for the rest of the season.”
Without the reigning NCAA Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, LSU has gone 4-0, with both the school and Reese herself remaining mum on the nature of her absence. While Mulkey has thus far refused to comment on why the program’s most visible player has been away from the team, the 21 year old recently took to social media saying “Please don’t believe everything you read.”
After being benched in the 2nd half of the Tigers’ game versus Kent State on November 14th, Reese wasn’t brought along to the Cayman Islands Classic tournament which took place over Thanksgiving. However the Maryland born star wasn’t the only player whom the team elected not to bring to the event. Junior guard Kateri Poole also stayed behind, and remains absent from the team. No updates on her return have been provided by the school or Mulkey to date.
There had been previous reports circulating that Reese was allegedly suspended by Mulkey for the purposes of an “attitude adjustment”, which seemed to gain momentum when the veteran coach spoke to the press on November 20th.
“You always have to deal with locker room issues,” Mulkey told reporters when asked about her star player’s absence. “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 it and sometimes you don’t. Sometimes you want to know more than you’re entitled to know.”
Whatever the cause may have been, it appears as though coach and pupil have found common ground and are now ready to put their early season woes behind them.
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