BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) – As for LSU star Angel Reese, the third-seeded Tigers’ prospects of repeating as national champions will depend more on their mindset than their obvious abundance of talent.
“We didn’t have the most talented team last year,” noted Reese, whose Tigers (28-5) played in the NCAA women’s open tournament against 14th-seeded Rice (19-14) on Friday in Baton Rouge.
“We have one of the most talented teams in the country this year,” Reese continued. “It’s a whole different game changer in terms of understanding what it really takes to win this case.”
Sixth-seeded Louisville (24-9) and eleventh-seeded Middle Tennessee (29-4) will even face one another on Friday in Baton Rouge. The winners of Friday’s games will meet here on Sunday in the second round, with the winner of that game advancing to the Albany 2 Region semifinals.
Reese’s points and rebounding numbers have dropped off a bit this season, but that is probably intentional. LSU’s top five this season includes two high-profile transfers – guard Hailey Van Lith (from Louisville) and forward Aneesah Morrow (from DePaul) – in addition to high-scoring wing Mikaylah Williams, who was recently named SEC Freshman of the Year.
Like Reese, Morrow is a strongman who can shoot and rebound. He ranks second on the team in each categories, behind Reese.
However, Reese still averaged a double-double (with a per-game average of 19 points and 13.1 rebounds) and was named All-American and SEC Player of the Year.
“I don’t care about points and stuff like that,” Reese said. “Being able to do whatever it takes to win has always been important to me.”
Although LSU’s roster includes a few of the most famous and highest-paid players in women’s basketball, Rice emerged from relative anonymity.
The Owls lost their final five regular-season games before stunningly winning 4 straight in the American Athletic Conference Tournament to earn an automatic bid.
“The February skid we experienced, no coach wants to go through that,” Rice coach Lindsay Edmonds said. “But it allowed us to refocus. It allowed us to change our mindset and have hunger in our eyes as we headed into the conference tournament.”
Playing an all-star LSU team at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center during March Madness will probably be a brand new and unparalleled experience for Rice, a program that last played in the NCAA Tournament in 2019, before any current players arrived.
Edmonds noted that when preparations for LSU began, she told assistants that she didn’t have to be briefed on the Tigers’ personnel “because I had seen enough of them to know who they all were.”
“There’s going to be some things we’re not used to,” Edmonds said. “We didn’t play in the NCAA tournament. It’s been a protracted time since we played in an arena of this size that may have an audience (near 13,000). We didn’t play against the status of those players.
“Hopefully we can calm our nerves down in the first few minutes and then just sit back and play basketball,” Edmonds added. “And hopefully we can block all these other things.”
STEALS OF MARCH MADNESS
While Louisville has appeared in 15 of the last 16 women’s NCAA Tournaments under coach Jeff Walz, Middle Tennessee has been no stranger to March Madness during coach Rick Insell’s tenure.
The Blue Raiders will make their second straight NCAA appearance and twelfth since Insell took over the team in 2005.
“We basically got most of the squad back” from last season, noted Insell, whose team hasn’t lost since Dec. 30 and has since won 19 straight games. “We were kind of on the run and we’re excited about where our basketball team is right now.”
MTSU beat Louisville the last time they played one another last season, and the Blue Raiders seem like a formidable foe for Louisville, which plays in a stronger conference but hasn’t been in a position to string together two wins since Feb. 1.
Louisville will probably be trying to proceed its 12-game win-loss trend for at the least another game; Cardinals after losing to Notre Dame in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament.
“Our conference is probably one of the best in the country, if not the best,” said Merissah Russell, a senior guard from Louisville. “We are a very battle-experienced team.”
FAMILIAR FACES
While Louisville and LSU may not have met in the second round, the indisputable fact that Van Lith’s previous team was sent to play at her current school was a subject of debate.
“I was her roommate for three years, so I talk to her almost every week,” Russell, of Louisville, said of Van Lith.
Russell added, nevertheless, that the Cardinals cannot afford to dwell on the possibility of facing their former star in the second round.
“You have to pay attention to the teams in front of you and put that history behind you,” Russell said.
Van Lith said she expected her relationship with Russell to last “for the rest of my life.”
“She’s a great friend,” Van Lith added. “I love supporting her as much as I can, but I’m a competitor and when it comes time to compete, I’ll compete.”
