The LSU Tigers will move onto the round of 32. They may even walk into the Sweet 16 with the upset of Louisville today. If the Tigers want to move on any further than that they better figure it out. I’m also not writing off Middle Tennessee knocking them out in the next round.

They stunk today. They were bad. They looked disconnected, they looked sloppy. Nothing about this team, IN THIS GAME tells me they can win another national championship. Of course, postgame, ESPN sure thought so, because for some reason we can’t criticize women’s basketball.

Angel Reese, one of the best players in the country, superstar, icon. Angel and Caitlin Clark are the face of Women’s Basketball. Really, they’re the face of College Basketball in general. Reese came out and shot a whopping 1-7 from the field. Now she did have 19 rebounds which is an incredible number, but why is that what ESPN talks about after a game like this. She finished with 10 points, 8 of which came from the FT line. She also tallied 6 turnovers and 0 assists. Now every player is entitled to a bad game and she effects the game in a multitude of ways but why are the ESPN analysts not mentioning anything about LSU playing an absolutely terrible game against a far inferior team.

Rice finished the regular season in 6th place in the AAC. They finished the season with 5 straight conference losses before making a run in the conference tournament to earn the automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. They landed at 92 in the RPI ratings and their good wins during the season? Well they didn’t really have any. If you look at their teams stats, nothing stands out. Not great at anything but also not bad at anything.

LSU on their home floor in March were 28.5 point favorites entering the game. LSU found themselves up 6 with 2 minutes left in the game. They turned the ball over 24 times, which was a season high, against a team that only forces 16 per game. Rice didn’t show up to this game and play awesome either. The Tigers didn’t run into a team that had the game of their lives and were super efficient on either end of the floor. The Owls shot 35% from the field, 29% from 3 and only made 6 free throws. If it wasn’t for the free throw line, where the Tigers shot 22/31 we may be having a totally different conversation regarding Kim Mulkey, Angel Reese and the LSU Tigers.

The Women’s NCAA Tournament has been around since 1982 and a 14 seed has never beaten a 3 seed. It didn’t happen today, nor should it have, but it shouldn’t have been anywhere close either. The women’s game is growing at a rapid rate and there are stars and great teams. LSU and Angel Reese are two major reasons for that but they stunk today. To not call it how it is, is a major disservice to the fans that have been following and also to the new ones coming along.