GREENVILLE, S.C. — Angel Reese sunk into her chair in the LSU locker room, a piece of net tucked firmly in her championship cap. She picked up her phone to scroll through social media, following an exhilarating — and improbable — trip to the women’s Final Four.
Perhaps no one on the Tigers’ roster represents making the improbable happen more than Reese, who watched the Final Four from home this time last year after her team, Maryland, was eliminated. A week later, she entered the transfer portal with her sights set on South Carolina or Tennessee.
Then she got a chance phone call from Kateri Poole, the former Ohio State guard who was also in the transfer portal. Poole was determined to play for Kim Mulkey at LSU.
Reese? Not so much.
“Kateri called me and was like, ‘Take a visit to LSU,” Reese said. “I was like, ‘I guess?’ Then I took a visit, and every other visit got canceled. I don’t think I’d be able to do this anywhere else. Best decision I ever made in my entire life.”
At this point, Reese turned to Poole, sitting next to her in the locker room and asked, “What did you say to get me here?”
“I said ‘Let’s go, let’s do this,'” Poole said. “She was like, ‘I don’t know.’ I’m like, ‘Angel, just take a visit.'”
“I was scared to get coached by Coach Mulkey,”…
