LSU’s repeat bid ends with Elite Eight loss to Iowa

ALBANY, N.Y. — Flau’jae Johnson bends over and stretches her legs as the group roars its approval of extra Iowa free throws. She stands up with a deep breath as actuality units in that the LSU Tigers’ hopes for a repeat nationwide championship are over. The clock signifies 14.2 seconds stay in Monday’s regional closing, however LSU is down by 10 factors, and star ahead Angel Reese is on the bench after fouling out with 1:45 to go.

Johnson grabs the rebound after an Iowa miss, runs down courtroom and hits a 3-pointer to chop the deficit to seven factors. Nevertheless it’s over. Because the clock hits zero, she walks off the courtroom, lifts the underside of her jersey to her lips and bites down on it as she stands within the entrance of the handshake line. In her periphery, the Hawkeyes have a good time, bathing within the glory of a return to the Ultimate 4, of avenging their title recreation loss to LSU final season within the NCAA event.

Johnson, who places up a team-high 23 factors, will get to the top of the road. The guard pauses, gazing out into the group with an unreadable look on her face. She turns away and heads off the courtroom, again down the tunnel with the remainder of her crew.

LSU fell to Iowa 94-87 within the Elite Eight. Reese appeared to twist her ankle early within the second quarter. The Tigers shot 38.6% from the ground and simply 8-of-24 from past the arc. The gang in Albany was tilted in opposition to them. And, in the end, the Tigers had completely no reply for Caitlin Clark, who tallied 41 factors, 12 assists and seven rebounds.

“It form of felt like we had been dropping all recreation,” Tigers guard Hailey Van Lith says. “From the beginning, we did not do what we would have liked to do.”

The loss put a cap on a season filled with adversity. Make {that a} 12 months. Earlier than the Tigers even walked off the courtroom following their 2023 championship win over Iowa, they had been criticized for his or her raucous celebration. On social media, Reese was known as “classless” and an “fool” for gestures she made towards Clark.

Issues did not get any simpler when the brand new season started. The Tigers misplaced their season opener. November was marked by a four-game absence by Reese and a season-ending damage to sophomore Sa’Myah Smith. Kateri Poole left the crew. That gave option to convention losses, together with within the SEC championship recreation to South Carolina. All of the whereas, LSU was forged as a polarizing champion on social media and typically in conventional media, as effectively.

“So many issues occurred this 12 months, so many issues hit us, and we by no means folded,” Reese says throughout Monday’s postgame information convention. “We got here up quick, however we’ve to maintain our heads excessive.”

THE ROAD WAS ROCKY from the beginning. On this season’s first recreation, the defending champs and preseason No. 1 had been shocked by No. 20 Colorado 92-78. LSU coach Kim Mulkey, who had landed two high-profile transfers in Van Lith and Aneesah Morrow, questioned her crew’s management instantly after the loss. Within the fourth recreation, Reese did not rejoin LSU after halftime. She wasn’t with the crew for the following recreation or the one after that. After which when the Tigers boarded a aircraft heading for Grand Cayman to play within the Cayman Islands Traditional over the Thanksgiving vacation, Reese did not go along with them. Neither did Poole.

The eye got here like a frenetic whirlwind. The place was Angel Reese? When would she play? Why did she not go to the Cayman Islands?

“Angel is a part of this basketball crew,” Mulkey stated after Reese’s first missed recreation. “We hope to see her earlier than later.”

With few particulars and no solutions, hypothesis ran rampant on social media. It was quieter on Grand Cayman, however the beachy paradise wasn’t solely an escape. Smith, a starter, went down awkwardly in opposition to Niagara, grabbing her proper knee as she laid on the hardwood of the highschool fitness center. Although the total scope of her damage would not be identified till later, she had suffered a season-ending knee damage.

Reese returned in opposition to Virginia Tech, LSU’s first foe after getting back from Grand Cayman. Poole by no means got here again. A purpose for Poole’s departure was by no means supplied by LSU or Poole, however Poole reportedly entered the switch portal on March 13. Reese stated she had stepped away to give attention to her psychological well being.

A 5-0 December changed into a troublesome January, which included convention losses to Auburn (a shock), South Carolina (not a shock) and Mississippi State (one other shock). LSU did not lose in February, dominating the again half of the SEC common season.

After which there was March.

LSU opened the month by persevering with to win and marched into the league championship recreation decided to offer undefeated South Carolina a severe problem. Late within the fourth quarter, Johnson fouled South Carolina guard MiLaysia Fulwiley after Fulwiley picked Johnson’s pocket. As gamers walked off the courtroom, Johnson bumped Ashlyn Watkins. Then Gamecocks heart Kamilla Cardoso rushed towards Johnson and shoved her to the ground. Gamers from each benches swarmed onto the courtroom, resulting in mass ejections and a suspension for Cardoso. South Carolina gained 79-72 to gather the SEC event trophy.

Following the sport, Mulkey ignited controversy together with her feedback suggesting Cardoso ought to have picked on somebody her personal measurement. “I want she would’ve pushed Angel Reese,” Mulkey stated. “If you happen to’re 6-8, do not push any individual that little.”

The drama didn’t subside as soon as the NCAA event began. Hypothesis that The Washington Publish was going to publish an article about Mulkey surfaced on social media. In response, Mulkey started a March 23 information convention forward of LSU’s second-round matchup with Center Tennessee State by threatening to sue the newspaper if it printed a “false story” about her.

The Publish story printed on Friday, and Mulkey stated that she hadn’t learn it and did not substantively remark additional. However one other newspaper — the Los Angeles Occasions — caught her ire after it printed a column contrasting LSU and UCLA earlier than their Candy 16 recreation on Saturday. The unique story used “soiled debutants” to explain LSU and in contrast its recreation with UCLA to good vs. evil.

Van Lith described the Occasions article as racist. “I do know for a reality that individuals see us in a different way as a result of we do have loads of Black ladies on our crew who’ve an angle and like to speak trash and folks really feel a manner about it,” she stated. “On the finish of the day, I am rocking with them as a result of they do not let that change who they’re. They keep true to themselves, and so I am going to have their again.”

SITTING AT THE DAIS for Monday’s postgame information convention, Reese is flanked by Johnson on her proper and Van Lith on her left. Johnson dips her head low. Van Lith appears forward, eyes vast open and glassy.

Reese acknowledges that she twisted her ankle within the second quarter. Following the damage, she shot simply 2-of-14 from the sphere. However she says she will not use that as an excuse. Reese declines to say whether or not she’s going to go to the WNBA or use her fifth 12 months of eligibility to play yet another 12 months of school ball. Whether or not or not that is the top of Reese’s school profession, this second marks an finish.

An finish to a 12 months of upheaval and alter. An finish to the roller-coaster journey of the season. An finish to LSU’s reign.

When Johnson is requested about Reese, she sits up tall and speaks proper into the mic. “All people can have their opinion on Angel Reese, however y’all do not know her,” Johnson says. “I do know the actual Angel Reese, and the particular person I see each day is a robust particular person, is a caring, loving particular person. However the crown she wears is heavy.”

As she talks, Angel begins to interrupt down.

After Johnson finishes, Van Lith leans ahead to say she wish to share, as effectively, although she is not immediately requested. “I feel Angel is among the hardest folks I have been round,” Van Lith says. “Folks communicate hate into her life. I’ve by no means seen folks want dangerous issues on somebody as a lot as her, and it doesn’t have an effect on her. She involves observe each day. She lives her life each day. She lives how she needs to stay, and he or she do not let no person change that.”

Reese rocks backwards and forwards, tears spilling from her eyes as Van Lith and Johnson discuss her so passionately. Johnson reaches over and wipes a tear from Reese’s cheek.

Minutes later, the LSU locker room is quiet. Gamers sit in entrance of their lockers, many trying down on the flooring, silent except answering questions from the smattering of media within the room. Solely a day prior, the locker room was so full, it was exhausting to maneuver. Now, there are only a handful of reporters transferring by means of the room whereas a few cameras are pointed at Reese. Everybody else is targeted on the Hawkeyes, the winners.

“This crew, we get knocked down and we rise up each time,” Van Lith says. “We had been standing up, however on the finish of the day, we simply did not play effectively sufficient. That s— occurs. It is a part of sports activities.”

Johnson sits trying up at these asking her questions. She is demonstrative as ever, a smile even creeping throughout her lips at one level. Her mantra is that she must be higher. Extra constant.

“I will be actually intentional about that subsequent 12 months,” she says.

The time for speaking about this 12 months is over.