The head coach of Louisiana State University's female basketball team has explained why one of their star players, Angel Reese, has been dropped, although Kim Mulkey didn't give full disclosure of the details on the absence.

Reese has missed two games since being pulled from the starting line-up, with the talk on the grapevine being that she has proven problematic behind closed doors although it is not connected to her grades and academic performance.

Reese is regarded as one of the best players on the NCAA team, and in 2022/23 put up averages of 23 points per game, 15.4 rebounds per game and a shot percentage of 52.5% from the forward position. She also won "Most Outstanding Player" and is a three-time All-American but that doesn't make her exempt from being made an example.

"You always have to deal with locker room issues," Mulkey said to media. "That's just part of coaching. That's what coaches do. Sometimes, y'all know about them, and sometimes you don't, and sometimes you want to know more than you're entitled to know.

"I'm going to protect my players always, they are more important. It's like a family. If you do some discipline of your own children, do you think we're entitled to know that? That's a family in that locker room."

Mulkey's shot at the press

With the absence of a player of Reese's talent, questions and theories will duly follow and this is exactly what has happened much to the displeasure of the LSU Tigers' coach.

She took particular aggrievance to the use of the word "suspension" and the connotations of ill discipline.

"It doesn't really matter what I say to you guys," Mulkey said. "You're going to write and interpret things the way you want to. Some of you wrote some things that I never said.

"I never used some of the words that y'all wrote, you interpreted it the way you wanted to. Just write what I tell you."

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