ALBANY, N.Y. — There’s joy, because of course there’s joy when a team survives and improves in March. Flau’jae Johnson, who scored 24 points to lead LSU to a win over UCLA, jumped to his Tiger family and friends with a big smile.
But about 15 minutes later, at the postgame press conference, Johnson’s guard was back, sitting next to Angel Reese and Anissa Morrow. The same goes for Reese’s. So is Moreau’s. Yes, the Tigers are excited to be in the Elite Eight. But they are well aware of how the world sees them, and they don’t always appreciate it.
“We’re good villains,” Reese said. “Everybody wants to beat LSU. Everybody wants to be LSU. Everybody wants to play LSU. You have to realize, we’re not an ordinary basketball team. Coach (Kim Mulkey) talks about it all the time; she calls us “The Beatles.” People chased our bus. People come to watch our games. You’re going to see sellouts, you’re going to see people buying jerseys, you’re going to see more sellouts than men.
“We have such a big impact on the game, all of us are very competitive and want to win and will do whatever it takes to win. We’re just changing the game.”
Reese noted that she was criticized for modeling because she enjoys modeling in addition to basketball. “I can do both,” she said. Johnson is often asked about her second career as a rapper. “Frogger can do both.”
“We can all do both,” Reese continued. “People don’t believe that. They don’t think we’re focused, and we prove every night that when we’re in between those lines, we’re focused. That’s what we’re worried about.”
“People were going to trash me for rapping and basketball, so I knew I had to work harder.” “She does rap, her new single is ‘It’s Not My Fault,’ But Today, This Winning Is Your Fault .” “It’s all our fault!” Holly Rowe’s great postgame interview with Flau’jae Johnson. pic.twitter.com/6GpOxPq9uf
– Awful Announcement (@awfulannouncing) March 30, 2024
“Being able to have teammates supporting me, teammates and coaches supporting each other all the time. I don’t care what the outside world thinks,” Reese said. “I know what’s going on in the locker room.”
Before the season started and at some point during the season, many outside the program wondered how it would work — with the additions of Haley Van Liss from Louisville and Moreau from DePaul — there was only one basketball left to play. for sharing. And the coach isn’t afraid to speak his mind (or put stars on the bench).
“People are always telling us how we should act, how we should dress, how we should talk,” Johnson said. “But no one has ever done this before.”
She is right. These LSU players are living at the forefront of an era of name, image and likeness, balancing their lives as students, athletes and entrepreneurs in ways we’ve never seen.
Malki tells them to be themselves and she says she will fight for them. She said in an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times on Saturday that her team represents “evil” against UCLA’s “goodness” and that the Tigers are “dirty freshmen.”
“How dare people attack children like this?” Mulkey said. “You don’t have to like the way we play. You don’t have to like the way we talk trash. You don’t have to like any of it. We’re happy with that. But as a mother, a grandmother and a leader of young people, I can’t sit here. , allow someone to say that.”
Kim Mulkey was asked what people thought of her LSU team.
In her response, she mentioned a recent article she read in the Los Angeles Times about the game between UCLA and LSU.
“I will not let sexism continue…how dare people attack children like this.” pic.twitter.com/72YwVnmwyv
— Sports News (@sportsnews) March 30, 2024
That’s what LSU wants to talk about after Saturday’s exciting win over UCLA. It’s something this coach and these players think about and deal with every day. A lot of that is because of the way this team was introduced to much of the country — last year’s championship game, the taunts and all the talk (it backed up).
So as Mulkey and Reese prepare for a rematch with Iowa State, it feels similar again. They don’t need to be liked, but they demand to be respected. That’s what to expect as the Tigers keep winning and chasing a second straight national title.
“We’re winning at the highest level in college, but we’re not settling down,” Reese said. “But I don’t want to change that on this day. I don’t want to change where we are now. I don’t want to change the three letters on my chest because it means something and I want to be part of history.”
(Photo of Flau’jae Johnson (left) and Angel Reese: Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
