LSU welcomed the spotlight. The Tigers embraced it. They wanted to be the hunted.
After all, you don’t begin a national title defense by stalking the transfer portal and bringing in the nation’s top recruiting class to fly under the radar.
The Tigers were modern college basketball’s petri dish under the microscope of watchful eyes, a near-historic accumulation of talent on a single roster under coach Kim Mulkey. It was as big as possible. Tigers fans were welcomed into the Pete Maravich Assembly Center for the season’s first practice to a giant video screen that read in all caps: “COME SEE THE SHOW.”
But two months in, we’re still not sure if it’s a drama, comedy or tragedy.
The seventh-ranked Tigers host No. 9 Virginia Tech on Thursday night in a game that should be billed as the best matchup of the week, one of a handful of primetime games on ESPN this season. Instead? We’re not talking about the matchup. We’re not even talking about basketball.
We’re talking about the other show. Everything else swirling around the defending champs.
We’re talking about the mysterious absence of LSU’s star player, Angel Reese, and Mulkey’s cryptic, terse responses to inquiries about the situation. We’re wondering what all this might mean for a team that, on paper,…
