What to know about Angel Reese, star player for defending national champion LSU

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The NCAA women's tournament is filled with dynamic teams and household names. Among the biggest is LSU forward Angel Reese.

Reese, a junior forward from Baltimore, Maryland, is averaging a double-double for her third consecutive season and is LSU's best player. More importantly, Reese and the Tigers are looking to repeat as college basketball national champions, following their 102-85 victory over Caitlin Clark and Iowa last April. Reese was named the Most Outstanding Player in the championship game.

This season, LSU will be looking to repeat, though it lost to South Carolina in the SEC championship game, a tense contest in which multiple players from both sides were ejected.

Here's everything you need to know about LSU forward Angel Reese.

Who is Angel Reese?

Reese is a junior forward from Baltimore, Maryland, who played high school basketball at St. Frances Academy. She played the first two seasons of her college basketball career at the University of Maryland, where she came in as one of the top prospects in the country; ESPN ranked her as the No. 2 overall recruit in her class, behind Paige Bueckers.

Reese played sparingly her freshman season, but still averaged 10 points and six rebounds in 15 games, which earned her recognition on the Big 10 All-Freshman team. As a sophomore, Reese led Maryland to a Sweet 16 appearance and led the team in scoring (17.8) and rebounding (10.6), becoming the first Terrapin since 1975 to average a double double. She entered the transfer portal in 2022 and eventually chose to go to LSU.

For the first 13 games of her first season at LSU, Reese wore the jersey No. 1, but switched to No. 10 when it became available. Reese wears No. 10 because it is the number her mother wore at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and it's the number her brother, Julian, wears at the University of Maryland.

Reese posted a monster season, leading the SEC in scoring and rebounding with 23 points per game and 15.4 boards per game, respectively.

What else is Angel Reese known for?

Aside from her tremendous play on the court, Reese is one of the most recognizable and marketable athletes in college sports, if not the country.

Reese said that fans last year started calling her the "Bayou Barbie." The nickname soon caught fire amongst the Tigers' fan base and she capitalized on it through NIL ventures. She began selling merchandise with her name and "Bayou Barbie" on shirts, hats, etc. She and her legal team had filed a trademark patent, which was denied in November 2023 due to "likelihood of confusion." Her team opted not to submit additional evidence, letting the case expire.

Still, On3 evaluates college athletes' NIL value and assessment and Reese ranks as the third female college athlete in NIL earning at $1.8 million, behind LSU gymnast Livvy Dunne ($3.6 million) and Iowa shooting guard Clark's ($3.1 million).

Her most prominent NIL deal is with Reebok, whose basketball division is now headed by LSU great and Basketball Hall of Famer Shaquille O'Neal. She'll have her own line of inspired clothing released with the company and also has other NIL deals with Mielle Organics, Coach and Beats by Dre, among others.

Reese has a close relationship with O'Neal, who called Reese "probably the greatest athlete" to come from the Tigers program. Reese told USA TODAY Sports' Lindsay Schnell that she considers O'Neal to be a "father figure."

She was also photographed in Los Angeles by Yu Tsai for the 2023 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, making her debut in the edition.

She has more than 383,500 followers on X, formerly Twitter, and more than 2.6 million followers on Instagram.

Angel Reese stats

Reese is leading LSU in points and rebounds, and is averaging a double-double for the third consecutive season. She is averaging 19 points, 13.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game. Her rebound average ranks second-best in the country for Division I athletes, behind BYU's Lauren Gustin. Her points-per-game average ranks 37th in the country.

Reese is known for being a double-double machine. Last season, she broke a Division I record with 34 double-doubles, recording one in all but two of her 36 games. In fact, she began the 2022-23 season with 23 consecutive double-doubles, which broke Sylvia Fowles’ previous LSU record of 19.

Last season, Reese led the SEC in scoring (23 points per game) and rebounding (15.4), and was a first-team All-American selection from the AP, WBCA and USBWA.

This year, Reese has seen a slight dip in her numbers, though she is still comfortably averaging a double-double; she is scoring 18.7 points and recording 13.2 rebounds per game.

LSU's next game in NCAA Tournament

After defeating UCLA in the Sweet 16, Reese and LSU advanced to the Elite Eight and will face the No. 1 seed Iowa Hawkeyes in a rematch of last year's national championship.

Against the Bruins, Reese scored 16 points and added 11 rebounds and four blocks.

Contributing: Cory Diaz, Lafayette Daily Advertiser