Angel Reese’s absence from the LSU women’s basketball team continued on Monday night as the circumstances around it remained murky.
Reese missed her second consecutive game when the Tigers tipped off against Texas Southern University without their All-American forward.
Reese’s situation with LSU has become college basketball’s biggest mystery since it started to develop last week.
The 2023 NCAA Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player was not with the team when they came out for warmups less than an hour ahead of tipoff and Reese was not listed as part of LSU’s starting lineup.
“Angel Reese is still part of the team. She is not in uniform tonight,” LSU coach Kim Mulkey said before the game, according to the SEC Network.
The LSU and women’s basketball star hasn’t played since last Tuesday when she was benched in the second half against Kent State and didn’t play on Friday against Southeastern Louisiana.
Why she hasn’t been with the defending national champions has remained unclear, despite various rumors that have circulated around social media.
Mulkey has been incredibly tight-lipped about the whole thing, only offering up a vague explanation following Friday’s game.
“You want me to explain why? It’s very obvious Angel was not in uniform,” Mulkey said postgame Friday. “Angel is a part of this basketball team and we hope to see her sooner than later.”
Over the weekend, Reese herself offered up a cryptic response to the whole thing herself.
“Please don’t believe everything you read,” Reese wrote on X.
The post came a day after she had posted in an Instagram story a picture of the LSU court with a cart filled with basketballs.
Reese’s initial benching last week had been described as a coach’s decision by Mulkey.
