First lady Jill Biden said Monday that she wanted both teams to be invited to the White House after attracting national interest in the final. But Smith doesn’t agree with including the second-place team. Iowa fell 102-85 in the national championship to LSU, but Caitlin Clark continued her stellar play with 30 points and the game shattered the previous viewership record for women’s basketball.
‘I mean absolutely zero disrespect to the First Lady, but you are 1000% correct,’ he tweeted in response to a tweet where Reese called the news ‘a joke.’ ‘That is a bad suggestion. Runner-ups don’t get invited to the White House. Why are we trying to change it now? I completely agree with you, Angel.’
The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about whether President Joe Biden would also extend a White House invite to Iowa and whether it would be a joint visit with LSU or a separate engagement.
Biden, who watched the game from the stand’s on Sunday night, praised Iowa’s sportsmanship and congratulated both teams on their performance. ‘I know we’ll have the champions come to the White House, we always do. So, we hope LSU will come,’ she said. ‘But, you know, I´m going to tell Joe I think Iowa should come, too, because they played such a good game.’
Following LSU’s victory, Tigers coach Kim Mulkey said she would go to the White House if the team was invited. LSU star Angel Reese tweeted a link to a story on Jill Biden’s remarks on Monday. ‘ A JOKE,’ she wrote, along with three crying-laughing emojis.
Clark set the record for points scored in an NCAA Tournament with 191 in six games. If she saw Reese´s gestures, Clark didn´t seem concerned about them. Social media lit up in the aftermath, with some believing it was trash talk that´s just part of the game while others condemned her for lacking grace in victory. Reese was unapologetic.
Reese – the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player has gotten a lot of attention on social media during the past 24 hours, ever since she waved her hand in front of her face while staring down Iowa star Caitlin Clark in the final moments of LSU’s win, then pointed toward her finger as if to say a ring was coming.
‘All year, I was critiqued about who I was,’ Reese said. ‘I don´t fit in a box that y´all want me to be in. I´m too hood. I´m too ghetto. But when other people do it, y´all say nothing. So this was for the girls that look like me, that´s going to speak up on what they believe in. It´s unapologetically you.’
Iowa did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the invitation. In her remarks, Biden also marveled at how far women’s sports in the US have come since Title IX in 1972 gave women equal rights in sports at schools that receive federal funding.
Reese is black while Clark is white. Clark, the scoring sensation who was the first with consecutive 40-point games in an NCAA Tournament, made a similar face-waving gesture to no one in particular during Iowa’s Elite Eight victory over Louisville.
‘It was so exciting, wasn´t it,’ the first lady said. ‘It was such a great game. I´m old enough that I remember when we got Title IX. We fought so hard, right? We fought so hard. And look at where women´s sports have come today.’
