GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands (AP) — LSU star Angel Reese has not been seen with the seventh-ranked and defending national champion Tigers at the Cayman Islands Classic basketball tournament.
The Associated Press observed players, coaches and support personnel walking from their charter flight to a bus at the airport in George Town, Grand Cayman, after they landed on Wednesday.
When asked about Reese's absence in the Cayman Islands, LSU women's basketball spokesman Grant Kauvar said the university is deferring to coach Kim Mulkey on matters involving the 2022-23 All-America forward.
LSU does not play in the tournament until it faces Niagara on Friday. LSU also is scheduled to play Virginia on Saturday.
Reese, who is one of the most popular and commercially successful players in her sport, has missed LSU's previous two games against Texas Southern on Monday and Southeastern Louisiana last Friday for undisclosed reasons. She also was benched for the second half of a victory over Kent State on Nov. 14.
And while her teammates were traveling on Wednesday, Reese posted a video of herself on social media in which she looked at the camera while an audio clip played of Deion Sanders saying, “What about me would make you think that I care about your opinion of me?"
The Tigers (5-1) won the games Reese missed by wide margins and have not lost since dropping their opener in Las Vegas to then-No. 20 Colorado, which has since risen to No. 3.
Mulkey, a four-time national championship-winning and Hall-of-Fame coach, has declined to go into detail about why Reese has not been with the team lately.
“You always have to deal with locker-room issues,” Mulkey said after LSU beat Texas Southern 106-47.
“Sometimes you all know about them. Sometimes you don’t. Sometimes you want to know more than you’re entitled to,” Mulkey said. “I’m going to protect my players — always. They are like a family.”
Mulkey and LSU players have said they hoped the trip to the Cayman Islands would promote team bonding.
“We get to go to a cool place. LSU takes very good care of us. We're very fortunate,” guard Hailey Van Lith said earlier this week. “It's really a time where we can bond as a team and have fun and go to the beach, but also play basketball and get things done.”
Mulkey said some players and coaches had family members traveling to the islands to watch the games, and that they will celebrate Thanksgiving together.
“We're going to do fun things and we're going to try to win two ball games,” Mulkey said.
Since last season, when Reese led LSU to a national title, she has appeared in numerous national advertising campaigns and accumulated endorsement opportunities worth more than $1 million, including with Reebok.
Her popularity stems in part from her combination of feminine style and ferocious play. She is known as the “Bayou Barbie,” in part because of her painted nails and eyelash extensions, and has expressed an interest in modeling.
Yet she is fiery on the court, staring down opponents after swatting away a shot, diving on the floor for loose balls or celebrating with a short dance move after big baskets. She famously once blocked a shot with one hand while holding one of her shoes that had come loose in the other. She dominated a second-round NCAA Tournament game against Michigan last March with dried blood on her face and a fat lip with gauze under it after she'd been inadvertently struck in the mouth.
Last season, she averaged 23 points and 15.4 rebounds — and set an NCAA record with 34 double-doubles in a season.
But while her unfiltered public persona has made her a charismatic figure in women's basketball, it also has brought controversy.
Reese is known to say she is “unapologetically me,” can accept being portrayed as “the bad guy” and doesn't back down from criticism that some of her actions rub fans and competitors the wrong way.
That happened at the end of last season's national championship game against Iowa, when she gestured triumphantly at Hawkeyes star Caitlin Clark. And afterward, when she took issue on social media with first lady Jill Biden's suggestion that both LSU and Iowa be invited to the White House because their matchup was so enthralling.
Reese said she'd rather visit the family of former President Barack Obama but wound up attending LSU's celebration with President Joe Biden and the first lady.
“I’ll take that I’m going to be the bad guy, but I know I’ll grow women’s basketball and I know I’m being positive and I know that I’ve inspired people,” Reese said shortly before this season. “People can think what they think."
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AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball