Angel Reese departs LSU, leaving behind an unparalleled legacy, according to Scott Rabalais

Just one.

Angel Reese represents that in LSU basketball history.

Choose any other legendary LSU basketball player you would like to bring up. Pete Maravich. Augustus Seimone. Shaquille O’Neal. Sylvia Fowles. Abdul-Rauf, Mahmoud (previously Chris Jackson). Johnson Temeka. Rudy Macklin. Ferdinand Marie. Bob Pettit. One might continue with the list.

Of them, only one guided his LSU team to an NCAA title.

Reese Angel.

Following coach Kim Mulkey’s entry to the LSU campus a year prior, her presence in 2022 significantly altered the program. Although Mulkey was the mastermind, it was Reese who took the court and turned LSU back into a major force in the country.

one basket after another. Rebound one by one.

She contributed to changing the game along the way. The NCAA final between LSU and Iowa last year, according to ESPN analyst and legendary women’s basketball player Rebecca Lobo, sparked the spark for women’s basketball’s meteoric rise. The best example of that progress was seen on Monday night in the Elite Eight, when a record 12.3 million collegiate women’s basketball fans watched Reese and LSU take on Iowa and their standout player Caitlin Clark.

Most of the credit for Monday’s incredible audience will go to Clark and the Hawkeyes, who won the game 94-87. However, none of those millions of viewers would have chosen to see Iowa play against any other team or great player.

After LSU’s NCAA tournament second-round victory over Middle Tennessee on Sunday, March 24, 2024 at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, forward Angel Reese (10) gives a hearty high five to the crowd as a way of saying “thank you.”

LSU was the name. It was Reese. Once more, there was fireworks.

With 1:45 left, Reese fouled out, leaving everyone to wonder whether this was the last game she would ever play for the Tigers. It didn’t take us long to wonder.

Reese had to make a decision fast because of the WNBA’s strict deadline, which states that players must declare for the draft within 48 hours of their season concluding. Her statement via Vogue magazine suggests that she had already made up her mind.

It would be preferable for Reese and teammate Hailey Van Lith to return to play for LSU next season, I wrote while I sat at the gate at LaGuardia Airport in New York on a soggy Tuesday afternoon. Reese is a projected top-10 choice in the WNBA draft, but she still needs to improve her outside the hoop.

Nevertheless, I accept her choice. She claimed that her four years of college, two at Maryland and two at LSU, have given her every opportunity to achieve her goals. Athletes are perfectly entitled to determine when it’s time to turn the page.

Now, Reese joins the elite group of LSU alumni. Reese’s name and No. 10 need to be raised up there eventually, whether it’s from the Pete Maravich Assembly Center catwalk or whatever rafters LSU’s proposed new arena features. Maybe she should have a statue of Augustus someday.

Reese’s critics will never forget her ring-finger pointing. Her unwavering scoring and rebounding around the hoop will always be remembered. There was nowhere else for a loose ball to go if it struck her hands after bouncing off the hoop.

She’s leaving now. “Bayou Barbie out,” as it mentioned in her parting video.

Yes, out. Ignored at LSU? Never.

Not in a one-on-one situation.

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