There are two undisputed truths when it comes to LSU women’s basketball.

1. The Tigers have played a weak schedule, void of any true tests so far this season.
2. Angel Reese is one of the best players in the country.

The combination of these truths makes it difficult for Reese to truly showcase her talent. Through 12 games (and 12 wins) for LSU, Reese is averaging a double-double and is one of two players to record one in all of her team’s contests. The second is Lauren Gustin of BYU, though the Cougars have played 11 games to LSU’s 12.

Reese is sixth in the country with 24.6 points per game, first with 14.6 rebounds per game and 12th with a 63.5 shooting percentage. She’s been LSU’s top scorer in eight of their 12 games, and the top rebounder in all but one.

Those are Player of the Year numbers.

But those performances have not come against Player-of-the-Year competition.

Up to LSU’s 87-55 win over Oregon State on Sunday, the Tigers’ opponents list was as follows: Bellarmine, Mississippi Valley State, Western Carolina, Howard, Northwestern State, George Mason, UAB, SE Louisiana, Tulane, Lamar and Montana State. The Tigers are winning their games by an average of 44 points per game, and while other top-25 teams are testing themselves, the No. 11 team in the country is not.

LSU has yet to play a ranked team, whereas every other top-25 team has taken on another top-25 squad at some point this season. The Tigers’ opponents are also low on the NET rankings, with only two teams they’ve played so far (Tulane and Oregon State) ranking in the top 100, three in the top 200 (Montana State, UAB and George Mason) and the rest sitting at 269 or below.

It’s hard to take LSU seriously with its slate of opponents, which unfortunately for Reese, makes it hard to take her seriously as a POY candidate.

Angel Reese Takes It Coast to Coast 🏝️

📺 https://t.co/n0rQXmVq6m pic.twitter.com/gTE3NTXvWF

— LSU Women's Basketball (@LSUwbkb) December 19, 2022

Regardless of the circumstances, Reese is doing everything she can to get her name in the conversation. On Sunday, the sophomore forward put up her best numbers against the Beavers, the best team LSU has played so far at 64th in the NET rankings. Reese finished with 25 points and 20 rebounds to lead her team to victory.

Reese has played against elite competition before, just not as a Tiger. She played two seasons at Maryland, improving over her freshman and sophomore years before transferring to LSU in May. In her first season at Maryland, Reese averaged 10 points, six rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game in 15.1 minutes of playing time. She increased those numbers to 17.8 points and 10.6 rebounds as a sophomore, while also contributing 1.1 blocks in 25.9 minutes per contest.

As a Tiger, Reese has continued her double-double prowess while adding 2.9 assists, 2.3 steals and 1.4 blocks per game.

She played arguably her two best games at Maryland against the best competition the NCAA has to offer . She had 20 points and 10 rebounds in a loss to South Carolina last December, and then 25 points and nine rebounds in a loss to Stanford in the Sweet 16 of the 2022 NCAA Tournament. There’s no reason to think she won’t have similar success this year in an LSU uniform, but POY awards can’t be given based on assumptions, so she’ll have to prove it when the time comes.

Angel Reese went off. 😤

(h/t @OptaSTATS) pic.twitter.com/aeSAYDScwB

— Just Women’s Sports (@justwsports) December 15, 2022

Another positive for Reese is consistency. Even against low-level teams, players have bad games, but the forward has had a similar output in every game with the double-doubles to prove it. Reese is shooting an efficient 63.5 percent from the field, a mark that puts her at 12th in the country. She’s not forcing shots nor completely dominating the ball, though both would be easy to do in blowout games. Instead, she’s letting the game come to her and making the most of her opportunities.

Reese has a legitimate shot at the Player of the Year award despite her team’s cakewalk schedule. LSU is an AP top-25 team, meaning she gets plenty of eyes on her each week, and they have upcoming SEC games against No. 21 Arkansas and No. 1 South Carolina. If Reese has big performances against those teams — especially against the Gamecocks and reigning POY Aliyah Boston on Feb. 12 — her case for this year’s award becomes even more compelling.

Eden Laase is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @eden_laase.

Longtime USWNT fixture Carli Lloyd took to Instagram Wednesday morning to announce that she’s pregnant with her first child. 

"Baby Hollins coming in October 2024!" she wrote. The caption framed a collaged image of baby clothes, an ultrasound photo, and syringes indicating what she described as a "rollercoaster" fertility journey.

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In a Women’s Health story published in tandem with Lloyd’s post, the Fox Sports analyst and correspondent opened up about her struggles with infertility and the lengthy IVF treatments she kept hidden from the public eye.

"Soccer taught me how to work hard, persevere, be resilient, and never give up. I would do whatever it took to prepare, and usually when I prepared, I got results," Lloyd told Women’s Health’s Amanda Lucci. "But I found out that I didn’t know much about this world. I was very naive to think that we wouldn’t have any issues getting pregnant. And so it began."

Lloyd went on to discuss her road to pregnancy in great detail, sharing the highs and lows of the process and expressing gratitude for the care and support her family and medical team provided along the way. She rounded out the piece with a nod toward others navigating the same challenges, encouraging people to share their own pregnancy journeys, painful as they may be.

"My story is currently a happy one, but I know there are other women who are facing challenges in their pregnancy journey. I see you and I understand your pain," she said. "My hope is that more and more women will speak up about this topic, because their stories helped me. I also wish for more resources, funding, and education around fertility treatments. There is much to be done, and I hope I can play a role in helping."

The 41-year-old New Jersey native retired from professional soccer in 2021, closing out her decorated career with 316 international appearances, the second-most in USWNT history, in addition to 134 international goals. A legend on the field, Lloyd walked away from the game with two World Cups, two Olympic gold medals, and two FIFA Player of the Year awards.

On Tuesday, FIFPRO announced the launch of Project ACL, a three-year research initiative designed to address a steep uptick in ACL injuries across women's professional football.

Project ACL is a joint venture between FIFPRO, England’s Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA), Nike, and Leeds Beckett University. While the central case study will focus on England’s top-flight Women's Super League, the findings will be distributed around the world.

ACL tears are between two- and six-times more likely to occur in women footballers than men, according to The Guardian. And with both domestic and international programming on the rise for the women’s game, we’ve seen some of the sport's biggest names moved to the season-ending injury list with ACL-related knocks.

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Soccer superstars like Vivianne Miedema, Beth Mead, Catarina Macario, Marta, and England captain Leah Williamson have all struggled with their ACLs in recent years, though all have since returned to the field. In January, Chelsea and Australia forward Sam Kerr was herself sidelined with the injury, kicking off a year of similar cases across women’s professional leagues. And just yesterday, the Spirit announced defender Anna Heilferty would miss the rest of the NWSL season with a torn ACL. The news comes less than two weeks after Bay FC captain Alex Loera went down with the same injury. 

Project ACL will closely study players in the WSL, monitoring travel, training, and recovery practices to look for trends that could be used to prevent the injury in the future. Availability of sports science and medical resources within individual clubs will be taken into account throughout the process.

ACL injuries in women's football have long outpaced the same injury in the men's game, but resources for specialized prevention and treatment still lag behind. Investment in achieving a deeper, more specialized understanding of the problem should hopefully alleviate the issue both on and off the field.

With recent transfers Talia von Oelhoffen and Kiki Iriafen joining first-team All-American JuJu Watkins and the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class at USC next season, the Trojans look to transition from an up-and-coming squad to a legitimate title contender. 

Former Oregon State graduate student von Oelhoffen is the latest collegiate talent to commit to the program, announcing her transfer Monday via ESPN. She follows ex-Stanford leading-scorer Iriafen in the jump to the pair’s one-time Pac-12 rival.

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The 5-foot-11 Washington native was a two-time All-Pac-12 guard during her time at Oregon State. But after the recent dissolution of the Pac-12, the Corvallis side found themselves without a permanent home conference going forward. Many big name players opted to take their skill elsewhere as a result, with von Oelhoffen’s fellow ex-Beaver Raegan Beers announcing her own departure to Oklahoma on Monday.

According to DraftKings, USC is now tied with UConn for the second-best betting odds to win the 2025 NCAA women’s tournament. Dawn Staley’s tested South Carolina side, poised for a repeat performance, holds down the number one spot.

Last year, LSU loaded up in the transfer portal after beating Iowa to win the 2023 national championship. The Tigers were clear favorites coming into the 2023-24 season, but were bounced in the Elite Eight by Caitlin Clark’s Hawkeyes. Shortly thereafter, star transfer Hailey Van Lith opted to transfer a second time, this time signing with TCU. 

Yet while history proves that an excess of star power doesn’t always translate to on-court chemistry, on paper, USC sure looks ready to hold their own — in 2025 and beyond.

The United States and Mexico have withdrawn their joint bid to host the 2027 Women’s World Cup, per a Monday afternoon release from U.S. Soccer and the Mexican Football Federation.

According to the statement, they will instead focus on developing a "more equitable" bid for the 2031 tournament, with the ultimate goal of "eliminating investment disparities" between the men’s and women’s tournaments.

The federations went on to cite the upcoming 2026 Men’s World Cup in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico as an opportunity to build support for local infrastructure, improve audience engagement, and scale up media and partnership deals in preparation to "host a record-breaking tournament in 2031."

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"Hosting a World Cup tournament is a huge undertaking — and having additional time to prepare allows us to maximize its impact across the globe," said U.S. Soccer President Cindy Parlow Cone. "Shifting our bid will enable us to host a record-breaking Women’s World Cup in 2031 that will help to grow and raise the level of the women’s game both here at home as well as across the globe."

The decision leaves just Brazil and a joint bid from Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands in the running for the 2027 host spot. Brazil — the rumored frontrunner — has never hosted a Women’s World Cup, while Germany hosted the 2011 tournament as a solo venture. 

Furthermore, this postponement doesn’t mean the U.S. is a shoo-in for 2031, as it's been previously reported that 2022 UEFA Women's EURO host England is considering their own Women's World Cup bid. FIFA is scheduled to confirm the winning bid after the FIFA Congress votes on May 17th.