When Angel Reese first arrived at LSU last spring — after shocking the women’s basketball world when she transferred out of Maryland after just two seasons — she was ready to resume her college career wearing number 10. It’s the same jersey number her mother, Angel, used to wear when she played. The same number her younger brother, Julian, wears as a sophomore for the Terps. And the same number that now hangs in the rafters of her high school alma mater, St. Francis Academy in Baltimore.

“Number 10 is just our number, really,” Julian says. “Like, when you see number 10, you see the Reese family.”

There was just one problem. Number 10 was already taken by LSU graduate senior Ryann Payne. So, Reese had to settle for the number one instead.

In a way, it seemed fitting — a new number for a new start at a new school.

Transferring wasn’t something Reese had planned on when she first embarked on her college career in 2020 as a five-star recruit and the No. 2 player in the nation. But basketball sometimes takes players places they hadn’t intended on going. And to fully understand Reese’s basketball journey thus far, you have to go back to where it all began.

“My whole family played basketball. My aunts played basketball, my brother plays basketball, my grandparents played basketball. So, it kind of was like, ‘You’re gonna do this,’” says Reese, who tried everything from ballet to cheerleading while growing up. She also ran track and was a standout in volleyball.

But basketball was always the sport. And Reese’s mother, who raised her as a single parent, was the catalyst.

“I used to go to my mom’s games when I was younger. She used to play in a little league, and I used to always go watch her games on Sundays. That was something that was always inspiring to me,” Reese says. “She’s always been independent and she molded that into me. I am who I am because of her.”

When Reese first started playing, she was a point guard. A growth spurt in high school forced her into the frontcourt instead, but her point-guard abilities — ball handles, court vision, defensive agility and passing ability — went along with her. Those skills, combined with her 6-3 height and ability to rebound, set her apart.

Reese averaged a double-double throughout her high school career. And when the time came for her to pick a college program, Maryland seemed like the right choice.

“It was staying close to home, and also my development. Shay Robinson was there at that point [as an assistant coach], and I wanted to play with a post player, so we had Shakira Austin,” Reese says. “Brenda drove me there as well. She had recruited me since I was in the eighth grade and she had a great bond with my family, so it seemed to be a perfect fit for me, going into it.”

The expectations that followed Reese to Maryland were sky high. In her debut for the Terps, Reese notched 20 points and snagged nine rebounds. But the rest of her freshman year didn’t pan out the way she had hoped.

Austin had transferred to Ole Miss before the start of the 2020-21 season, COVID-19 was still impacting NCAA game scheduling, and Reese suffered a foot fracture just four games into the season. The injury and subsequent surgery kept her off the court until late February.

“Yeah, that was an emotional rollercoaster because I’ve never been hurt and I’ve never had to have surgery before,” Reese says. “It was tough. Like honestly, I’m not gonna lie — it was so tough on me because I had a lot of expectations.”

Reese eventually hit a mental wall, feeling like she was disappointing her team when she couldn’t be out there. But she stayed as engaged as possible, attending practices and standing firm on the sideline during games, hopping on one leg and cheering the team on. In turn, her teammates and coaches supported her throughout the recovery process.

By the time she returned to the court, Reese was ready to help Maryland win in any way that she could. She played limited minutes for the rest of the season, averaging eight points and 5.6 rebounds per game. The Terps made it to the Sweet 16 of the 2021 NCAA Tournament, losing a close game to Texas, 64-61.

When the 2021-22 season rolled around, Reese was determined to make her mark. She wanted more for Maryland and for herself. She wanted more than the Sweet 16. As a sophomore, Reese played in all 32 games while averaging 17.7 points and 10.6 rebounds. Though she often got into foul trouble, which left an already short Terrapins bench strapped, she finished second in the nation with 5.3 offensive rebounds per game and was named to the 2022 All-Big Ten Team.

Despite another bumpy season for the Terps — full of injuries to key players and COVID-19 infections — they made it back to the Sweet 16, this time against Stanford. Reese put up 25 points and grabbed nine boards, but it wasn’t enough. Maryland came up short once again, 72-66.

“I think we did what we could do,” Reese says of the season. “Some games we only had six players. I think only three players last year played every single game or were at every single practice. I mean, it was a rollercoaster and I think we did as best as we could do. We didn’t finish where we wanted to finish, but I think overall, it was great.”

After the game, Reese tweeted, “We’ll be back, I’ll be back, TRUST ME.”

We’ll be back, I’ll be back, TRUST ME..

— Angel Reese (@Reese10Angel) March 26, 2022

But once the rigors of the college basketball season ended, she began to think otherwise. Her up-and-down sophomore year, combined with the injury setback during her freshman year, had been taxing. And Reese says she needed a fresh start.

Ten days later, she entered the transfer portal. In one week, Maryland lost its top two scorers, Reese and Ashley Owusu, and three other players to the portal, coinciding with a growing trend in college basketball that Frese said she was prepared for.

“Our new reality is the transfer portal,” Maryland coach Brenda Frese said back in 2020. “Kids come and go, and they do what’s best for their unique situations. As a program, you have to do what’s best.”

When asked for comment from Frese, a Maryland spokesperson said this week, “We certainly wish Angel and her family all the best in her career.”

For Reese, doing what was best for her meant looking for a different opportunity that would help her grow as a player, with her sights set on the WNBA.

“I wanted more for myself,” she says. “I knew that I wanted to develop into that stretch-four player, so being able to do that and play under a coach that could help me get to that level — because I know I’m not gonna play the five at the next level. I know I’m not gonna be sitting down in the post. I mean, there are way bigger players than me in the WNBA, so I know that I would have to play that stretch-four position.”

As one of the top players in the transfer portal, Reese was soon courted by a handful of elite programs. Her family and AAU coaches advised her to go where she felt most comfortable. Reese scheduled visits with South Carolina and Tennessee, thinking her decision would come down to being either a Gamecock or a Vol.

LSU wasn’t even on her radar, until Kateri Poole intervened.

Poole and Reese had been friends for a long time. They met on the Blue Star 30 circuit and stayed close throughout high school. After playing two seasons at Ohio State, Poole decided to transfer as well. She had been zeroing in on LSU since the Buckeyes played them in the Sweet 16 of the 2022 NCAA Tournament. As soon as Reese hit the transfer portal, Poole suggested they take a visit to Baton Rouge together.

“We got there. The food was awesome. We’re both from the East Coast, so it was new to us,” Poole says. “We both got the whole experience. The Southern hospitality was really good. I think that was the main thing for us, and I think she fell in love with how real Kim was.”

Later on in the visit, during a team dinner at Mulkey’s house, Poole and Reese walked into the sprawling backyard and agreed — they were going to LSU. And on May 6, it became official.

“When I came here, I just fell in love with everything — the environment, the people, everything that Coach Mulkey did in one year,” Reese says. “My development, where she had me as a plan for the next two to three years — all of that was set up for me so I was just like, yeah, this is the perfect place for me.”

Reese was also impressed with how much LSU supports its women’s sports teams. She was amazed at the size of the crowd during the Tigers’ preseason games, and in early January she acknowledged a billboard featuring her and her teammates alongside players from the men’s team. “Recruits,” Reese wrote on Twitter, “when you choose a school, choose somewhere where they treat both the mens and womens teams EQUAL.”

From day one, the energy she felt from LSU athletics and Mulkey herself felt different.

“She’s gonna keep it real with me. She’s never told me a lie. She’s always kept it real with me,” Reese says of Mulkey. “That’s something that I love. She’s really, really competitive. Like, super competitive.”

In turn, Mulkey says she knew from the first intra-squad scrimmage just how good Reese could be, because nobody on the team could stop her. And what she saw during practice over the spring and summer has since translated into the regular season.

“She’s playing extended minutes. She’s never played this many minutes before because she would always get in foul trouble. So, I think she’s more disciplined,” Mulkey said during a press conference in early January. “She sees every defense imaginable and yet she’s still one of our assist leaders. She’s gonna look for the open player. It’s impressive.

“I don’t care who you play, she’s capable of doing that every game.”

Since November, Reese has accumulated 18 consecutive double-doubles while averaging 23.9 points and 15.4 rebounds. She leads the nation with 6.1 offensive rebounds per game and 104 total rebounds on the offensive glass — more than 13 Division I schools have as a team.

The Tigers are currently 18-0 and ranked No. 3 in the AP Top 25, but they have played just one ranked opponent so far this season. A softer schedule can often inflate statistics and make teams look more efficient on both ends of the floor. Still, it’s hard to overlook Reese’s numbers and overall impact. Her stats are up across the board, and she’s firmly in the conversation for Player of the Year.

“I haven’t seen a significant role change. I think she still has the same skill set. It’s just that she’s got a change of scenery,” says ESPN women’s basketball analyst Debbie Antonelli. “She’s the top offensive rebounder in the country. To me, that says a lot about perseverance and being relentless and aggressive and knowing her role.”

“I’m just happy,” Reese says. “This is the happiest I’ve ever been playing. I feel like I’m back to my game. I came out of high school as the No. 1 wing, so being able to go straight to the post, that was a hard shift for me. And then being able to come back to playing here at LSU, being a versatile post player, being able to do things outside of just being a post player — I’m really happy.”

Later this month, LSU will go up against SEC foes Tennessee and No. 1 South Carolina. Both matchups will be litmus tests for the Tigers. Despite what their schedule indicates so far, Reese is confident in what her team has built this season, with all of the new pieces coming together. And she has her eyes set on bigger goals.

“I mean, that would be great if I won Player of the Year, but I want to win a national championship. I want to get past the Sweet 16,” Reese says.

“People remember the Player of the Year. But when you have that ring, like, I want to be able to do something legendary here at LSU.”

Reese recently shared a photo of herself standing next to LSU alum and WNBA legend Seimone Augustus. It was taken in 2011, when Reese was 9 years old. On Jan. 15, Augustus received a statue in her honor outside of Pete Maravich Assembly Center with Reese in attendance.

That’s the kind of legacy Reese hopes to leave behind. She wants to be as memorable of a player as Augustus, and as dominant as Sylvia Fowles, who currently holds the LSU record for most consecutive double-doubles with 19, which Reese can tie with another double-double Thursday night against Arkansas. And she wants to continue her career at the next level in the WNBA, just like they did.

Julian has no doubt his sister will get there.

“I feel like she’s playing great. I see her working hard this offseason, and I feel like all that hard work is paying off,” he says. “She’s just showing her true self and coming out of her shell. There’s more to come for her.”

Perhaps it’s serendipitous, but Reese is back to wearing number 10 again. Four games into the season, Payne finished up her graduate studies and decided to move on from basketball. When the number became available, Reese wasted little time asking the coaching staff if she could have it.

“I was like, ‘Hey you guys, can I get number 10?’” she laughs. “And they were like, ‘We’ll let you know, we’ll see.’ They kept playing around. They were like, ‘I don’t know, Angel. If you switch to number 10, you still gonna do what you gotta do?’

“And I was like, ‘Yeah, I think I will.’”

Lyndsey D’Arcangelo is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports, covering the WNBA and college basketball. She also contributes to The Athletic and is the co-author of “Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Women’s Football League.” Follow Lyndsey on Twitter @darcangel21.

Seven-a-side football is going global, with the newly announced World Sevens Football (W7F) set to kick off in May 2025.

Promising a $5 million prize pool per event, W7F will be a series of competitions in the same fashion as tennis' Grand Slams, with tournaments scheduled in "football-loving cities" worldwide.

Jennifer Mackesy, a minority owner of the NWSL’s Gotham FC and the WSL’s Chelsea FC, is a co-founder of the new soccer venture. Additionally, some of the game’s biggest names are backing W7F, including the USWNT's two-time World Cup champions Tobin Heath and Kelley O’Hara.

Heath is helming the W7F's player advisory council, which includes O'Hara and a trio of former international stars — England defender Anita Asante, longtime Sweden captain and midfielder Caroline Seger, and France defender Laura Georges — who are all shareholders in the organization as well.

Aly Wagner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist with the USWNT and co-founder of the NWSL's Bay FC, is serving as the new venture's chief of strategy.

"I'm so excited to play a role in building World Sevens Football," O’Hara said in a press release. "This groundbreaking format brings a new level of energy to the game while creating incredible opportunities for female footballers to showcase their talent on a global stage — and compete for a very lucrative prize pool."

"W7F is creating a future where women footballers have greater opportunities, financial security, and a bigger platform to connect with fans," echoed Heath in a statement. "This is about legacy — about changing the game for generations to come. And as a 1v1 artist myself, this format is a dream stage for those duels."

W7F to kick off alongside Champions League final

Each event will field eight professional women's clubs to compete in seven-on-seven matches, with teams explicitly in charge of all roster decisions. Games will be comprised of two 15-minute halves, with potential extra time periods for tiebreakers.

The first-ever contest will take place in Portugal from May 21st through 23rd, offering soccer fans an early treat ahead of the May 24th UEFA Women’s Champions League final, with at least one more W7F tournament currently in the works for 2025.

Already the broadcaster of the UWCL, streamer DAZN will be W7F’s global broadcasting, production, and marketing partner.

If change has been the driving force behind the 2024/25 women’s college basketball season, the Iowa Hawkeyes never took their foot off the gas pedal.

After four seasons spent watching 2024 graduate Caitlin Clark become one of the most impactful players of all time, Iowa has leaned hard into reinvention this year. It's a plan the No. 6 seed will hope pays off as they continue their NCAA tournament run on Monday after a dominant first-round 92-57 victory over Murray State.

Iowa’s rise to college basketball greatness is known. Clark, a home state hero, decides to build something unique with the Hawkeyes rather than heading to a blue-chip school. She then rewrites the very concept of a successful college career, breaking every scoring record that crosses her path while leading her team to two straight Final Four appearances.

With Clark, the team built a reputation for tough defense, logo threes, raucous crowds, and an elite competitive edge that electrified fans around the country. Clark may have been the headline, but Iowa created the platform.

“I think that for our team in particular, people do fall in love with the personalities of the women, and they want to support them, and they want to get behind them,” recently retired Hawkeyes head coach Lisa Bluder told Just Women’s Sports last month.

According to Bluder, Iowa’s winning roots run deep. Before Clark, the Hawkeyes rallied around another homegrown talent: 2019 National Player of the Year Megan Gustafson.

“We don't have any pro sports, so the Hawks are a big deal here. Our players are treated like professional players.” Bluder attested. “We've had women's basketball in the state for over 100 years. And not everybody can say that.”

Iowa basketball roots run deep

Basketball heritage is woven into Iowa’s culture as it carries through much of the Midwest. But what the Hawkeyes felt entering 2024/25 wasn’t a just tide shift. It was the kind of shakeup that could cause even the most beloved program to buckle under the pressure.

Last summer, Clark transitioned from Iowa superstar to the WNBA’s Rookie of the Year. And her teammate Kate Martin surprised the world by deploying her college strengths at the professional level. 

And it wasn’t just the players that left — the Hawkeyes also lost their longtime leader.

Bluder now sits on the sidelines, after amassing more Iowa wins than any other head coach in university history. She guided the Hawkeyes to 18 NCAA tournament appearances, only tallying one losing season over her 24 years. Beyond the X’s and O’s, Bluder was known for investing deeply in her players, exemplified by recruiting Clark and guiding her through her transformative college career.

Bluder shifts focus to the sidelines

The legendary coach has taken a step back from the day-to-day elements of women’s basketball, but she remains engaged with the sport. She currently serves as an advocate for technologically informed advances in basketball scouting and performance with companies like GameChanger. And she's always available to speak to reporters and communities alike on the subject of college basketball.

Even with distance, Bluder’s take on this season’s squad are as sharp as they ever were. “This is a team that lost four starters and the world's best players,” she said. “Let's not forget that when we're trying to compare.”

Bouncing back from the loss of a luminary head coach is never easy. And the Hawkeyes subsequently hit some bumps in the road this season, their first under longtime assistant and now head coach Jan Jansen. The reconstructed group began the season 8-0 before a skid that saw them lose seven of their next 11 games. Suddenly, a team not accustomed to losing had to find their patience.

“People can be a little bit unforgiving, and they're naive,” added Bluder. “Because this is a young team.”

Finding their way in the post-Clark era

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Hawkeyes finally finding their spark coincided with a visit from their most celebrated alum. It was early February when Iowa retired Caitlin Clark’s jersey, at an event planned around the unranked side’s high-profile matchup with JuJu Watkins and the top-ranked USC Trojans.

Rather than looking like also-rans up against the new wave of basketball wunderkinds, Iowa came to play. The Hawkeyes downed USC 76-69, officially becoming a bracket buster in the making. At once, wading through all that mid-season turmoil began to feel like working towards something, not against it.

“I’m just trying to stay steady,” Jensen said after that February victory. “Obviously a top four win is huge. I’m incredibly proud of them and I intend to build on it.”

Bluder agreed.

“I told her after the game, ‘Jan, this is your first top five win,’” she said, surrounded by fellow spectators like David Letterman and other celebrity fans. They watched from the stands as Iowa chipped away at a new team identity, one centered on transfer senior Lucy Olsen’s explosive shooting and the stabilizing interior presence of former Clark and Martin compatriot Hannah Stuelke.

“It just clicked that game, like, ‘This is what we brought you here to do,’” Olsen told The Athletic late last week, reflecting back on her team’s game-changing win.

Iowa paves a path to March Madness

Going into this weekend’s NCAA tournament, Iowa’s results have been there. They’ve won 10 of their last 13 games, with all three of those losses decided by single-digit margins against ranked opponents. That includes a near-upset of No.1 overall seed UCLA in late February, with Olsen averaging over 21 points since the victory over USC. And while the Hawkeyes’ corner of the bracket might be tough, they’ve managed to make some noise.

And momentum appears to be on Iowa’s side as they gear up for this afternoon’s second-round clash with No. 3 seed Oklahoma. The team recorded a tournament program-record 28 assists against Murray State — no small feat considering the Clark era's free-flowing basketball. All 12 Iowa players to feature last game scored at least two points, with five players registering double-digits.

The Hawkeyes will be eager to keep the good vibes going. But perhaps more importantly, they’re having fun playing the patented style that made so many fans fall in love with Iowa basketball. 

"It's fun to score obviously, but being able to make the extra pass... that just shows how special this team is,” said Iowa freshman Taylor Stremlow after Saturday’s win. “How much we love to share the ball, and support each other." 

Now aligned, the future is bright for Iowa

Resisting the temptation to let their season tank in favor of a lengthy rebuild, Iowa is achieving something far more difficult and by many degrees more interesting. They’re holding their own in an increasingly difficult Big Ten, leveraging their talent and potentially rewriting their legacy should they make it to the Sweet 16 — or beyond.

Of course, Bluder is keeping her eye on Iowa’s future. She’s already excited about next year’s recruiting class, saying she’s looking forward to five-star prospect Addy Deal joining the team. And the Hawkeyes announced they’ll be holding onto senior floor general Kylie Feuerbach for one more season.

“If recruits feel how great the atmosphere is in Iowa, in Carver [Hawkeye Arena], they're going to want to come back,” Bluder noted. True to her word, fan engagement hasn’t waned in the post-Clark era. The team averaging at-capacity attendance throughout the 2024/25 season.

A Cinderella March Madness run hangs in the balance

Iowa women’s basketball has been nothing short of a dream for a state so deeply entrenched in the sport. But things change, and the Hawkeyes are shifting their focus to a new dream: creating a level of success that extends far beyond a single figure. 

Regardless of whether they’re able to extend their Cinderella run or if their March Madness campaign comes to an end this afternoon, Iowa’s 2024/25 season was a hard-fought step in the right direction.

“Everybody asks me if I knew this was going to happen,” Bluder said of the legacy that lives on in this new team. “Of course, I didn't know it was going to happen. I hoped it was going to happen, but you never know for sure. We just had a belief.”

The quest for renewed parity in the NWSL received a boost over the weekend, as the 2025 regular season’s second matchday saw a few bottom-table teams capture key wins.

While the reigning champion Orlando Pride and the Kansas City Current maintained their perfect 2025 season records with respective wins over fellow 2024 semifinalists Gotham FC and the Washington Spirit, teams lower on last year's table claimed valuable points over the weekend.

With a 2-0 Saturday win over Racing Louisville, 2024 expansion team-turned-playoff debutante Bay FC earned three points, while last season’s stragglers San Diego Wave, Seattle Reign, and Houston Dash also put important points on the board — and scored some spectacular goals in the process.

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Rookie class fuels big NWSL second matchday wins

In the wake of a superstar exit, the Wave's 3-2 Saturday win over the Utah Royals helped buoy San Diego's early season.

Meanwhile, for Seattle and Houston — last season’s two lowest-ranked finishers — the weekend victories were especially sweet.

The Reign notched a 2-1 road victory over the North Carolina Courage on Saturday, secured by absolute screamers from Seattle's midfield mainstay Jess Fishlock, who scored in her 200th cap with the Reign, and 18-year-old center back Jordyn Bugg, whose stellar strike was her first-ever professional goal.

"Not only are we different, we’re really young," said Seattle head coach Laura Harvey after the match. "To come here with that youth and energy really helped us, matched with the experience of some of the older ones."

The Dash also snagged a 2-1 road win after a scrappy Sunday battle with the Chicago Stars.

After trailing by an early goal from Chicago forward Jameese Joseph, Houston quickly answered back with a corner-kick equalizer off of veteran defender Paige Nielsen in the match's 20th minute.

Notching her career's second-ever goal, rookie midfielder Maggie Graham ultimately put the Dash on top with a second-half game-winner.

Though this season's rookie class enters with an air of uncertainty thank to the elimination of the college draft, it's their young firepower that's pushing last year’s bottom-dwellers up the league's ladder — and perhaps, in a few months, into NWSL playoff contention.

With the first round and half of the second round in the books, March Madness tipped off with massive wins, narrow upsets, busted brackets, and the survival of every team seeded No. 3 and above.

While seven of those elite squads will square off against lower seeds in their second-round matchups on Monday, five have already snagged spots in the Sweet Sixteen — No. 1-seeds UCLA and South Carolina, No. 2 seeds TCU and Duke, and No. 3 seed Notre Dame all advance with Sunday victories.

Sunday's second round also saw No. 5-seeds rule the day, as Ole Miss, Tennessee, and Kansas State all booked Sweet Sixteen berths behind wins over their No. 4-seed hosts — Baylor, Ohio State, and Kentucky, respectively.

The clash between the two Wildcat teams proved to be the game of the weekend, as Kentucky pushed Kansas State to brink before falling 80-79 in overtime to the Big 12's big 'Cats.

The lights-out play of forward Temira Poindexter secured Kansas State's first Sweet Sixteen trip in 23 years, as the senior led Sunday's game with 24 points — all of which she scored from beyond the arc.

For fellow senior Serena Sundell, who had an impressive 19-point, 14-assist performance of her own, the win helped erase memories of last March Madness, when Kansas State was ousted in a second-round upset loss.

"That loss, we all just took it so personal," remarked Sundell after Sunday's victory. "I'm just so proud of our program, and to be able to bring [this win] back to our community and our university is so special."

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Top seeds show out with blockbuster offense

Before tackling second-round matchups, March Madness's biggest names dominated the first two days of games, making NCAA tournament history with six teams scoring over 100 points in their first-round wins.

No. 1-seeds South Carolina and Texas, No. 2-seed UConn, No. 3-seeds Notre Dame and LSU, and No. 5 seed Tennessee all surpassed the century mark in their 2025 March Madness debuts, tying the record for the most 100+ point team performances in a single NCAA tournament — all before the second round.

While each of those teams had at least one star score 20 or more points, UConn guard Azzi Fudd led the six-team field, posting 27 points to help the Huskies defeat No. 15-seed Arkansas State 103-34 on Saturday — Fudd's first NCAA tournament game in two years.

Notre Dame standouts Hannah Hidalgo and Sonia Citron closely trailed Fudd on the stat sheet, with each Irish guard scoring 24 points en route to a 106-54 Friday win over No. 14-seed Stephen F. Austin.

Those six blockbuster performances ultimately ballooned the first round's margin of victory to a whopping 26.5 points —the highest for any non-championship round in NCAA history.

Even more, the 2024/25 NCAA tournament's first round claimed a historic level of chalk, marking the first time in 31 years that no seed higher than No. 10 escaped the round of 64. Only two double-digit teams advanced — No. 10-seeds Oregon and South Dakota State.

Those arguably expected early-round oustings, however, bring top-tier matchups to the tournament's subsequent rounds — meaning the coming weeks will likely inject even more Madness into March.