When Angel Reese first arrived at LSU last spring — after shocking the women’s basketball world when she transferred out of Maryland after just two seasons — she was ready to resume her college career wearing number 10. It’s the same jersey number her mother, Angel, used to wear when she played. The same number her younger brother, Julian, wears as a sophomore for the Terps. And the same number that now hangs in the rafters of her high school alma mater, St. Francis Academy in Baltimore.
“Number 10 is just our number, really,” Julian says. “Like, when you see number 10, you see the Reese family.”
There was just one problem. Number 10 was already taken by LSU graduate senior Ryann Payne. So, Reese had to settle for the number one instead.
In a way, it seemed fitting — a new number for a new start at a new school.
Transferring wasn’t something Reese had planned on when she first embarked on her college career in 2020 as a five-star recruit and the No. 2 player in the nation. But basketball sometimes takes players places they hadn’t intended on going. And to fully understand Reese’s basketball journey thus far, you have to go back to where it all…
