ALBANY, N.Y. — There was joy, which in fact happens when a team survives and advances in March. Flau’jae Johnson, who scored 24 points to assist LSU past UCLA, ran as much as Tiger family and friends within the stands with a large, beaming smile.
But about quarter-hour later, defenseman Johnson stood up again as she sat next to Angel Reese and Aneesah Morrow in the course of the postgame news conference. It was the identical with Reese. Also tomorrow. Yes, the Tigers were joyful to advance to the Elite Eight. But they know exactly how the world sees them and they do not at all times appreciate it.
“We are good villains,” Reese said. “Everyone wants to beat LSU. Everyone wants to be LSU. Everyone wants to play against LSU. You have to realize that we are not an ordinary basketball team. Coach (Kim Mulkey) talks about it all the time; calls us “The Beatles”. People are running after our bus. People come to our matches. You see sales, you see people buying t-shirts, you see more sales than men.
“We have a huge impact on the game and we are all very competitive, we want to win and do everything to win. We’re just changing the game.”
Reese noted that she is criticized for modeling, which she enjoys along with basketball. “I can do both,” she said. Johnson is usually asked about her second profession as a rapper. “Flau’jae can do both.”
“We can all do both,” Reese continued. “That’s what people don’t believe. They don’t think we’re focused, and we prove every night when we get between those lines that we’re focused. That’s what we’re worried about.”
“People will discredit me because I rap and jump, so I know I have to try really hard.” “Reports, her new single is ‘It Ain’t My Fault,’ but today that win was your fault.” “It’s our fault!” Great post-game interview with Flau’jae Johnson with Holly Rowe. pic.twitter.com/6GpOxPq9uf
— Terrible Announcement (@awfulannouncing) March 30, 2024
“Just with the ability to have teammates that support me, teammates and coaches that just support one another on a regular basis. I do not care what the surface world thinks,” Reese said. “I do know what is going on on in that locker room.”
Before and during the season, many outside the program wondered how it would work – adding Louisville’s Hailey Van Lith and DePaul’s Morrow – with only one basketball at their disposal. And with a coach who isn’t afraid to say what he wants on the subject (and isn’t afraid to bench a star either).
“People are always telling us how we should act, how we should dress, how we should talk,” Johnson said. “But there have never been people who have done this before.”
She is right. These LSU players lived at the forefront of the name, image and likeness era, balancing their lives as students, athletes and entrepreneurs in a way we had never seen before.
Mulkey tells them to be who they are and she says she will fight for them. It started on Saturday at Los Angeles Times column which said her team represented the “evil” against the “good” of UCLA and that the Tigers were “dirty rookies.”
“How dare people attack children like that?” 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 it. We’re good with that. But I can’t sit here as a mother, grandmother and youth leader and let someone say that.
Kim Mulkey was asked what people considered her team, LSU.
In her response, she cited a recent LA Times article she read in regards to the matchup between UCLA and LSU.
“I will not allow sexism to continue.[…]How dare people attack children like this.” pic.twitter.com/72YwVnmwyv
— Sports News (@sportingnews) March 30, 2024
That’s what LSU desired to speak about after an exhilarating, breathtaking victory over UCLA on Saturday. This is what the coach and these players take into consideration and take care of every single day. This is principally as a result of the best way the team was introduced to most of America – through last yr’s title game, the taunts, and all of the talk (which it supported).
So it looks like Mulkey and Reese again as they prepare for his or her rematch with Iowa. You do not have to love them, but they demand respect. That’s what they’ll expect because the Tigers proceed to win and chase a second straight national championship.
“We won at the highest level in college football and there was no peace,” Reese said. “But I would not want to vary it today. I would not want to vary where we are actually. “I wouldn’t like to change the three letters on my chest because it means something and I want to be part of history.”
