The LSU women's basketball team suffered its second loss of the season Sunday when it was upset 67-62 by an unranked Auburn team on the road — and LSU's star player is shouldering all of the blame.
In the most important possession of the game, LSU coach Kim Mulkey called an isolation play for Angel Reese to try to tie the score at 64. Yet, while Reese was driving to the basket, the ball was stolen by Auburn guard JaMya Mingo-Young, which sealed the upset win for Auburn.
Soon after the game finished, Reese took to X to say, "This one was on me. We good! Geaux Tigers! ??'??'?".
This one was on me. We good! Geaux Tigers!???
— Angel Reese (@Reese10Angel) January 14, 2024
While Reese taking blame for the loss shows great leadership on her part, many LSU fans were upset with Mulkey because of the play she drew up. One X user wrote under Reese's post, "Appreciate this but coach has to draw up something that'll actually set y'all up for success in that situation."
As for Mulkey, she had an interesting explanation for why her team may not have showed up with the same energy and enthusiasm that it normally plays with.
During her postgame press conference, Mulkey was asked why LSU was in their locker room for so long after the game. She replied, "[We were] just talking about what you could have done better individually, and what did you learn from today."
Mulkey continued, "It's not just with the players. It starts with me. I made the decision to let them come to the [LSU men's basketball team] game last night. I'm gonna regret that all the way home. That was out of our routine."
While Mulkey did note that defensive struggles were the sole reason why her team lost Sunday, she clearly felt that throwing her team out of their typical pre-game habits might have contributed to their lackluster performance, even though she doesn't regret supporting the LSU men's team.
Now ranked 10th, the LSU women's team plays its next game Thursday at Alabama. While the LSU men's squad has a home game Wednesday against a 15-1 Ole Miss team, we shouldn't expect to see any female LSU players in attendance for that one.
