A Tiger Tale - An Article by Jim Gazzolo

The curious case of Angel Reese says a lot about where college sports is right now and where it might be headed.

Reese is the All-American forward from LSU who led the Tigers to the national championship in women’s basketball just last spring.

She made a name for herself during LSU’s title run and is if not the best player in the nation certainly very few are better.

Reese also made a lot of money through NIL deals and was very vocal on several subjects during the offseason. Now she has been absent from LSU games.

Reese has missed the last four Lady Tiger wins after being benched for the second half of a game of an easy victory over Kent State back on Nov. 14. Since then rumors have run wild.

About the only fact we know is that Reese remains a part of the LSU team. That comes from head coach Kim Mulkey, who said she will always protect her players and not everything is for public consumption. 

Meanwhile, Reese continues to play with social media and keep that very same public wondering. 

That seems to be the new game within the game.

Reese even gave LSU fans hope of her possible return with a social media posting this week. It was a picture of her inside the Tigers’ home arena. 

It could mean she expects to be back for Thursday night’s Final Four rematch with Virginia Tech. Then again it could mean nothing. 

Time will tell. 

What we do know is that this has become the college athletic world we live in. Information trickles in now as the subjects completely control the narrative. 

For good or bad that is what all this has become. 

Little has been talked about how LSU’s massive recruiting class and attack of the transfer portal has made the Tigers able to easily withstand the loss of Reese in the early going. 

She has become bigger than the team in many ways, which may not sit great either inside the locker room or with Mulkey, who is as old school as they come in regards to team first.

As for Reese, she is doing her best to keep her brand going, which is exactly what NIL investors want. Call it the game within the game.

None of this is to blame Reese, Mulkey or NIL. It is the outcome of a system that has overcorrected and a product of the times we live in.

To show how strange times are, Reese posted back on Nov. 19 “Please don’t believe everything you read.”

So are we not supposed to believe her when she asks us not to believe all that is written?

Seeing Reese back on the floor is all any Tiger fan wants to really believe. Until that happens it is all just speculation. 

Reese is not the first young athlete to be caught up in anything like this nor will she be the last. More and more of these situations will be played out as everybody tries to get a handle on the new world of college athletics. 

I would imagine by midseason Reese will be back leading the Tigers and all of this will be long forgotten as the sporting public will swallow up the next drama. 

It’s just the new game that’s being played.

If nothing else, it does get our attention.

Jim Gazzolo is a freelance writer who covers McNeese athletics. He is the host of Poke Nation on CBS-Lake Charles.