LSU Tigers star forward Angel Reese

Angel Reese is poised to hear her name called in the early portion of Monday’s WNBA Draft.

The LSU Tigers star had a dominant four-year career, split evenly between the Tigers and the Maryland Terrapins. She averaged 18.6 points, 12.3 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 1.6 steals and 1.2 blocks in 28.5 minutes per game, shooting 49.8% from the field and 70.4% from the free-throw line.

Reese earned a plethora of individual awards, including being named a three-time All-American and 2024 SEC Player of the Year.

She was selected to the first-team All-SEC twice, first-team All-Big Ten once, SEC All-Defensive Team twice, Big Ten All-Defensive Team once and Big Ten All-Freshman Team. Finally, Reese led LSU to the 2023 national title, their first in program history, earning NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player honors.

She’s projected to be selected in the top-five to top-10 range of the 2024 WNBA Draft. Reese has mostly been mocked to land with the Minnesota Lynx and Chicago Sky, who hold the seventh and eighth overall picks, respectively.

There have been suggestions that she could wind up being selected as high as fourth overall by the Los Angeles Sparks and as low as 10th overall by the Connecticut Sun.

While she has more star power and arguably better accolades, than any player outside of Caitlin Clark, there have been questions about how Angel Reese’s game will translate to the professional level. Nevertheless, don’t expect her to fall out of the top-10 of this year’s draft.

What did Angel Reese say about her decision to enter the 2024 WNBA Draft?

Angel Reese announced her decision to enter the 2024 WNBA Draft almost immediately after the LSU Tigers were eliminated in the Elite Eight of this year’s NCAA Tournament. Two days after the loss, in an interview with Vogue, she said:

“I’ve done everything I wanted to in college. I’ve won a national championship, I’ve gotten [Southeastern Conference] Player of the Year, I’ve been an All-American. My ultimate goal is to be a pro—and to be one of the greatest basketball players to play, ever. I feel like I’m ready.”

Reese added:

“I want to start at the bottom again. I want to be a rookie again and build myself back up; I want to be knocked down and learn and grow at the next level. … I’ll be working with grown women.

“I’ll be working with women that have kids, women that have a family to feed. I’m going to have to work my butt off every single day and grind. And who wouldn’t want that? I don’t want anything in my life to be easy.” [h/t Vogue]

After a successful college career, Angel Reese appears ready to take her game to the next level.

It remains to be seen if her success will translate, however, she will help bring a new fanbase to a league that has historically struggled to draw viewers.