John Byrum/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The much-discussed Kim Mulkey story from Kent Babb of the Washington Post dropped on Saturday.
In the wide-ranging profile, Babb reports Mulkey said in two different emails that LSU star Angel Reese was left off an awards list last year because of her GPA and complained because she was one of her players who “stay on that social media crap.”It was already known that Reese was left off the Wooden Award list last season because she wasn’t eligible.
When the list of 15 finalists was released in March 2023, Reese wasn’t among them despite averaging 23.4 points and 15.6 rebounds per game for one of the best teams in the country at the time.
Per ESPN’s Alexa Philippou, LSU confirmed Reese wasn’t eligible for the list of finalists because she didn’t meet all of the requirements for the Wooden Award. It wasn’t specified which criteria Reese didn’t satisfy.
The criteria listed on the Wooden Award website states candidates must have a cumulative GPA of at least 2.00 since enrolling at their current university, exhibit strength of character on and off the court, contribute to team effort, and excel on offense and defense.
Mulkey said at the time that Reese was “in good academic standing” and her absence from the list may have been due to some other criteria she didn’t meet.
“It’s just there’s a criteria on some of these awards like, a lot of them will have community service stuff. Some of them will have GPAs, yeah. She’s academically fine,” Mulkey explained.
Reese missed four straight games this season from Nov. 17-25 for unspecified reasons after being benched during a Nov. 14 game against Kent State for the second half.
“I could, but I won’t,” Mulkey said after the Tigers’ win when asked about why Reese remained on the bench. “It was just a coach’s decision.”
Speaking to reporters after a victory over Texas Southern on Nov. 20, Mulkey seemed to indicate there was some sort of locker room issue.
“You always have to deal with locker room issues,” she said. “Sometimes you don’t know about it. Sometimes you want to know more than you’re entitled to know. I’m going to protect my players, always. They are more important.”
Amid the speculation about her absence, which included an online back-and-forth between the mothers for Reese and LSU teammate Flau’jae Johnson, Angel Reese wrote on X asking everyone not to believe everything they read.
Reese was back in LSU’s starting lineup for a Nov. 30 game against Virginia Tech. She’s started every game since then and helped lead the team to a win over UCLA on Saturday.
In between LSU tournament games last weekend, Mulkey, unprompted, threatened to sue the Washington Post if it published a “hit piece” about her:
“After two years of trying to get me to sit with him for an interview, he contacts LSU on Tuesday as we were getting ready for the first-round game of this tournament with more than a dozen questions, demanding a response by Thursday, right before we’re scheduled to tip off. Are you kidding me?
“This was a ridiculous deadline that LSU and I could not possibly meet, and the reporter knew it. It was just an attempt to prevent me from commenting and an attempt to distract us from this tournament. It ain’t going to work, buddy.”
During her press conference on Friday, Mulkey declined to further address the situation:
Mulkey is in her third season as LSU’s head coach. She was hired by the program in April 2021 following a surprising departure from Baylor after 21 seasons that included three national titles.
The Tigers won the national championship last season for the first time in school history.
News
Sex Matters: Why Transgender Athletes Must Not Compete Against Biological Females
Sex Matters: Why Transgender Athletes Must Not Compete Against Biological Females With the news that Lia Thomas is seeking to overturn the ruling of World Aquatics regarding the participation of transgender women in women’s sports, we rerun this piece from…
Meghan Markle sparked Rory McIlroy romance rumours after ‘unexpected’ challenge and cosy dinner
Meghan Markle recently gushed about how happy she is with husband Prince Harry and their two children Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet. But long before she found happiness with her prince, the Duchess of Sussex was linked to several men after the breakdown of her first…
Denise Welch SLAPPED with hundreds of Ofcom complaints after SPARKING FURY with Meghan Markle row
Denise Welch has been slapped with hundreds of Ofcom complaints after sparking fury with a Meghan Markle row on a recent episode of Loose Women. The outspoken presenter, 65, got caught up in a fiery debate about Prince Harry and Meghan recently, with her…
Watch The Shocking Moment Taylor Swift And Lisa Kudrow Perform Friends Hit “Smelly Cat”
SHARE Taylor Swift and Lisa Kudrow’s Unexpected Duet at the 1989 World Tour Celebrity collaborations on stage are always exciting, and Taylor Swift’s 1989 World Tour at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles on August 26th, 2015, was no exception….
‘A true miracle’: A 6-month-old baby starts singing inside a church. Everybody enjoyed it
People in a nearby church were treated to a spectacular and surprising event when a five-month-old baby started singing on the spot, touching everyone’s hearts. People were shocked when, during a normal Sunday service, the baby, who was being…
Great dance and contortion moves from the ADEM show on America’s Got Talent
In 2019, ADEM Show took the stage of America’s Got Talent, where they were met with a huge task. Simon Cowell was not happy. Even more grumpy than normal. At the start of the video, you can see that…
End of content
No more pages to load