Hailey Van Lith delivers powerful statement about “racist” media coverage of LSU, Angel Reese

The upcoming game between Iowa and LSU is supposed to be a spectacle. It’s supposed to be a celebration of women’s college basketball, showcasing how far it has come in terms of talent and quality of play, with Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese playing starring roles.

Instead, it has been transformed into a battle of good versus evil, particularly due to a Los Angeles Times article that made the rounds on Friday and Saturday. In it, LSU’s players were essentially categorized as villains, with the writer even going so far as to dub them “dirty debutantes”.

Hailey Van Lith backs Angel Reese and teammates against racism

Speaking to the media on Sunday, LSU guard Hailey Van Lith addressed the article’s racist undertones with a strong statement.  “We do have a lot of black women on this team… unfortunately, that bias does exist still today. A lot of the people that are making those comments are being racist towards my teammates… I see with myself, I’ll talk trash and I’ll get a different reaction than if Angel (Reese) talks trash.”

Van Lith went on to say that some of the words that were used in the article were “sad and upsetting”. She also mentioned that she wanted herself and the whole team to ignore the article before the game.  This LSU team certainly seems to rub people the wrong way with how they celebrate wins and their confidence on the court, but there definitely appears to be a double standard at play.  Even Iowa’s Clark has been seen talking plenty of trash in this year’s tournament, but it hasn’t gotten the same type of blowback that Reese’s actions do.