Angel Reese has opened up about the pressure of fame after she won a national championship with LSU in 2023.

The 21-year-old became a household name in the US after leading her team to the NCAA Tournament title last year. The team made headlines on and off the court under the brash leadership of their coach, Kim Mulkey. Reese often became the target of criticism, some of it with sexist and racist undertones.

“I’ve been attacked so many times, death threats, I’ve been sexualized, I’ve been threatened, I’ve been so many things, and I’ve stood strong every single time,” Reese said after her team’s loss to Iowa in the NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight on Monday night. “I just try to stand strong for my teammates because I don’t want them to see me down and not be there for them. All this has happened since I won the national championship. It sucks, but I still wouldn’t change.

“The little girls that look up to me, hopefully I give them some type of inspiration – keep waking up every day, keep being motivated, staying who you are, stand 10 toes, don’t back down, and just be confident.”

Reese played through a sprained ankle on Monday night but still finished the game with 17 points, 20 rebounds and four assists. She said she would not use the injury as an excuse for the team’s loss to a Caitlin Clark-inspired Iowa.

“I’m tough, so I tried to play through it, of course, and this is something that has been going on for a little while now,” Reese said. “But I played through it, and I’m not going to make that excuse for the rest of my play for the game.”

Reese and Clark’s rivalry has been one of the talking points of college basketball. On Monday, the pair spoke briefly on court after the game.

“She just told me continue to be a great player,” Reese said. “And I told her continue to be a great player, as well. And keep elevating the game. And go win it.”

Reese is eligible for this year’s WNBA draft but said she has yet to make a decision on her future, and could still return to LSU next season. Meanwhile, her teammates defended Reese’s leadership.

“I’ve never seen people wish bad things on someone as much as her, and it does not affect her,” Hailey Van Lith said. “She comes to practice every day. She lives her life every day. She lives how she wants to live, and she don’t let nobody change that. That’s the key to life right there.”

Mulkey came under scrutiny during the tournament, attacking a Washington Post journalist for what turned out to be a balanced profile of her that she described as a “hit piece” before it had been published. However she also won praise for defending her players over a separate column that many saw as sexist. Mulkey said that despite Monday’s defeat, her team had helped change women’s basketball for the better.

“We’ve changed, people, we’ve changed. And we’ve changed in so many good ways,” she said. “These young people will have a memory of being a part of something that was this great tonight, many of them being a part of winning a championship last year. I can’t describe to you how good it is right now in women’s basketball. That’s why I wished this game could have been at the Final Four. Wow. Sure was good for an Elite Eight game.”