Reese: No bad blood with Clark, hoping to defend LSU's title - ESPN

BATON ROUGE, La. — LSU Tigers star Angel Reese is well aware much was made about the closing moments of the women's basketball national championship game in April. LSU had sealed the program's first NCAA title, and Reese gave wrestling star John Cena's «You can't see me» hand motion toward Iowa Hawkeyes star Caitlin Clark, then motioned to her ring finger.

Clark said after LSU's 102-85 victory in Dallas that she didn't really notice, but that she didn't think that Reese had done anything wrong. Clark said enthusiasm, emotion and even some trash-talking are a normal part of competitive sports, the same things she has done herself.

Thursday at LSU's media day, Reese shared similar sentiments. All eyes are on the Tigers — they added top transfers Hailey Van Lith and Aneesah Morrow and are No. 1 in ESPN's preseason rankings — and on Reese, the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player. She said she is ready to move forward, but did address the hoopla from April.

«I love Caitlin; we've been competing since we were in AAU,» Reese said. «It was always fun, always competitive. One day, hopefully, we could even be teammates. She is a great player, shooter, person and teammate.

»The world is always going to have a good girl and a bad girl. I'll take that I'm going to be the bad guy because I know I've grown women's basketball and inspired people."

Reese laughed when it was pointed out that «good vs. bad» just depended on which team fans were rooting for.

«Yeah, LSU loves me, but they might not like her. People can think what they think,» Reese said. «Me and Caitlin are cool; we've never had any issues. Just knowing I've helped grow women's basketball, and she has, too, that's all that matters.»

Reese also spoke of the news that the