Decision Time: Will Angel Reese Return to LSU for Another Season or Declare for WNBA Draft?

Reese has less than 24 hours to make her decision. Will she use her extra eligibility or go pro?

It's officially decision time for All-American forward Angel Reese. Will LSU's superstar return to Baton Rouge for another season or will she declare for the 2024 WNBA Draft?

For Reese, she must make a decision today. Following LSU's Elite Eight loss to Iowa, players were given a 48-hour window to finalize their plans for school or the pro route.

Now, the clock is ticking. She will have until roughly 8:00pm CT on Wednesday.

Along with Reese, LSU guard Hailey Van Lith will have the option to return to Baton Rouge for another year or go the pro route.

Both players have played four years of college ball, but have a COVID year of eligibility if they choose to utilize it.

“I’ve honestly learned that regardless [of my choice] I’m going to be able to make money staying or going,” Reese said on March 21. “Understanding that my brand has been built where I know I can take it past college. Like I have a brand outside of here where the deals are going to follow me if I leave or stay. And I’ve built that relationship with a lot of these brands. And I think that’s the difference. Like my Reebok deal, and I’m sure Hailey’s Adidas deal, that’s going to go on past college. Of course we may not have the same benefits or the same training rooms, the commercial flights and stuff like that. And I think that’s the con of everything, but you have to make a sacrifice.”

It's no secret Reese and Van Lith are the faces of the NIL space in women's college basketball. Both players have inked sneaker deals with Van Lith becoming a major ambassador for the Adidas women's campaign.

For Reese, she's taken deal after deal with her sneaker deal coming with Reebok.

“You have to kind of look at what type of player you are,” Van Lith said. “There’s some people that have to capitalize in college because they’re not a pro-type player. They’re likability is going to stay in college. And I think for me, that’s not the case. I’m a pro-type player. The deals will follow, like Angel said. The one downfall is visibility. And the amount of times we play on ESPN and ABC and all these major television channels, that becomes a lot less when you go to the WNBA where it’s at right now. You’re not going to be in the media as much, but from a brand aspect, as long as you do what you need to do and keep up that part of your life, then brands, they’re going to follow you when you go to the league.”

Will Kim Mulkey persuade either player to return to LSU for another season? She's openly stated that she will allow both players to make their decisions:

“I don’t know if i’ll have a conversation with them,” Mulkey said last month. “Angel said when she came here she would stay two years and Hailey said she’d stay one. I’m not the type of coach to sit people down and tell them which agents to pick or talk them out of what they want to do. They know they have the COVID year to come back and they would be more than welcome, but I try to stay away from having any kind of influential conversation, particularly with Hailey and Angel because they made it perfectly clear when they came what they wanted to do.”

No matter the decision, it's clear the impact Reese has left in Baton Rouge. A player who has taken America by storm during her two years with the program, she has asserted herself as a superstar down South who could very well have a statue in front of the Pete Maravich Assembly Center one day.

“What Angel Reese has done at LSU in two years, we really need to step back and go, ‘Wow,’” Mulkey said back in February. “She won a national championship last year, she’s a celebrity now. And then, to come back this year and get Player of the Year – she was an All-Defensive player, as well – she’s left her mark.

“Whether she comes back next year or not, that young lady has left her mark on LSU women’s basketball.”

The clock is ticking. What will Reese and Van Lith do?