Angel Reese explains her taunt toward Caitlin Clark

“I was waiting,” Reese said. “Caitlin Clark is a hell of a player for sure, but I don’t take disrespect lightly. She disrespected Alexis (Morris) and my girls, South Carolina, they’re my SEC girls too. Y’all not going to disrespect them either. I wanted to pick her pocket, but I had a moment at the end of the game, and I was in my bag. I was in my moment.”

The disrespect Reese appears to be alluding to comes from Iowa’s win over South Carolina in the Final Four on Friday. The Hawkeyes deployed a defensive gameplan of shutting down the paint against the Gamecocks, even if it meant leaving guards wide open. 

At one point, Clark literally waved off South Carolina guard Raven Johnson as Johnson stood undefended with the ball on the perimeter. Clark had defended the strategy after the game, saying South Carolina presented a “pick your poison” situation and that respect for their opponents’ post play had informed the move.

Prior to Sunday’s game, LSU guard Alexis Morris had criticized Iowa’s gameplan as “disrespectful” and said Iowa would not get away with it if they tried to do the same against LSU.

“I don’t think you can just leave me open on the perimeter or leave us open on the perimeter,” Morris had said, via Andrea Adelson of ESPN. “Me personally, I find it very disrespectful, so I’m going to take that personally going into that game.”

This, apparently, was what angered Reese and LSU so much. It’s important to note that Iowa did not repeat their defensive strategy against LSU, and Clark and the Hawkeyes guarded the perimeter more aggressively.

Athletes will always look for motivation, but this is pretty ridiculous even by those standards. Iowa defended South Carolina the way they did because they were trying to win the game. 

While Johnson went 3-for-6 from 3-point range in the loss, the Gamecocks as a whole went just 4-for-20. If they wanted to punish the Hawkeyes for their disrespectful defense, they should have knocked down more shots.

Leaving weak shooters undefended on the perimeter is a strategy deployed at every level of basketball. Even some NBA players have received that treatment. Less than a month ago, Fairleigh Dickinson executed their stunning upset of Purdue by putting three or four bodies on center Zach Edey and daring the Boilermaker guards to beat them from outside. 

Edey got 21 points and 15 rebounds, but Purdue shot just 5-of-26 from 3 despite getting plenty of open looks. The Boilermakers lost, and they did not spend time publicly complaining about disrespectful defense after the upset, either.

Clark hardly needs to be defended from some on-court taunts, but Reese just looks pretty bad here. To act as if Clark disrespected Morris by how she played against South Carolina and using a defensive strategy that was not even carried over to the LSU game is even more absurd.