Angel Reese and Hailey Van Lith and Kim Mulkey and LSU Tigers, oh my!

Iowa’s Caitlin Clark may be the face of women’s college basketball, but 2023 champion LSU may be the faces of the women’s game.

Start with LSU head coach Kim Mulkey, the OG of women’s basketball. She wears her flamboyant outfits at games, she works the officials hard, she wins national-titles (four), and she says what she wants.

Mulkey is from Tickfaw, La., which in itself is something. Tickfaw. It’s 45 miles north of New Orleans, in Tangipahoa Parish. I’m guessing it’s not much like the Big Easy.

Mulkey doesn’t have a filter.

Then there’s Angel Reese, who not only is a fantastic first-team All-America center, but became even more noticed for her taunting of Iowa’s Caitlin Clark in the Tigers’ 102-85 national-title win over the Hawkeyes and her press conference remarks afterward.

And now, Hailey Van Lith.

The graduate transfer guard is transferring from Louisville to LSU to seemingly make a great team even better. Van Lith is a terrific player. She averaged 19.7 points for Louisville last season, 23.8 over four NCAA games. She scored 27 in the Cardinals’ NCAA Elite Eight game against Iowa in Seattle.

Unfortunately for her, Caitlin Clark scored 41 and Iowa won, 87-77. Clark and Van Lith are friends and former USA Basketball teammates. But competition at a high level isn’t always conducive to civility.

Like Clark, Van Lith isn’t quiet or shy. Like Clark, she’s what you would call high-profile on the court.

Van Lith and Texas’ Sonya Morris had an unpleasant exchange after Louisville downed the Longhorns in the Sweet 16, 73-51.

LSU with Mulkey, Reese and Van Lith is a lot to imagine in multiple ways. Oh, the Tigers also have the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class coming into Baton Rouge.

Here is Reese’s Thursday reaction to the news Van Lith was joining her team: