Angel Reese Reveals The Dream HBCU She Wanted To Attend
Angel Reese says she once had HBCU dreams but attended a Power 5 school to further her basketball career. That decision worked out, but she still has love for her favorite HBCU.
In a video she posted to Instagram, the Randallstown, Maryland native says Howard University, just down the road, would have been her HBCU choice. Reese started her college career at the University of Maryland, then transferred to Louisiana State University, where she won a national championship and graduated in 2023.
“I always wanted to go to Howard because … I always wanted to go to an HBCU,” Reese said in the video before heading to her appearance at HBCU Aware Fest. “But I also wanted to play in Power Five. So, tough decisions. But in my second life, I would be an HBCU alum, and I would be a Howard alum. Because I just know I wanted to go to Howard, and it’s close to home. I’m from Maryland, so it’s close. So today’s fit of the day — Howard Girl.”
Reese’s decision to go to LSU changed not just her life, but the trajectory of the WNBA. While Caitlin Clark is given the credit for the league’s popularity boost in the last five years, it was the rivalry between the University of Iowa and LSU that sparked the league’s renaissance.
Reese, nicknamed the Bayou Barbie at LSU, was already a popular player, earning millions in NIL money when the 2023 NCAA championship pitted Clark and her mostly white Iowa team against a predominantly Black LSU team. The game generated the highest viewership for a women’s college basketball game in history at the time, averaging 9.9 million viewers. LSU won 102 – 85. A month later, both Reese and Clark entered the W, sparking a renewed rivalry.
Safe to say Reese made the right decision, although it would have been awesome to see her ballin’ at Howard in a similar way that Deion Sanders and his sons brought attention to HBCUs during their time at Jackson State University.
It’s been a busy summer and week for Reese, as she appears on the cover of Vogue Australia, the first female athlete wearing her own signature shoe to do so. Reese played for both the Unrivaled league, coming on in the second half of the season, and for Team USA. She also made an appearance at the Barbie Fest in Fort Lauderdale over the weekend.
Reese will report for duty for her day job in the WNBA soon, as the league returns on May 9. Now that the new CBA has been settled, expect a flurry of roster moves as more than 100 of the W’s 144 players are free agents. There are also two new expansion teams in Portland and Toronto that have to fill roster spots in a month’s time.
As she is still on her rookie deal, Reese is likely to stay put unless a trade is made. Wherever she is, it will be with a much larger paycheck as her and Clark’s salaries jumped significantly. Reese goes from $73,909 to $349,571, an increase of more than $200K.
The Sky opens up its season at the Moda Center in Portland against the Fire on May 9 at 9 p.m.
