Loud and targeted criticism has followed the LSU women's basketball program everywhere they've gone for the better part of the past two seasons, but it came to a head in recent days following a since-edited L.A. Times column.
The article in question directed highly questionable language and constructs toward the LSU women's team, including the term "dirty debutantes" and classifying the team as the latter of a good vs evil matchup with UCLA. Some of that language has since been scrubbed from the article itself, but Tigers guard Hailey Van Lith has no question about the motivations behind them.
"I think there’s a lot of situations that play into it, but I think you know, we do have a lot of Black women on this team," Van Lith told reporters this week. "We do have a lot of people that are from different areas, and unfortunately that bias does exist still today, and a lot of the people that are making those comments are being racist towards my teammates."
She's seen it herself, landing on the more accepted end of a double-standard. When she's brash, gets fired up, engages in trash talk, it gets a completely different reaction than when, for example, her teammate and much-discussed forward Angel Reese does. It's particularly relevant heading into an Elite Eight showdown with Iowa, whose star and women's basketball icon Caitlin Clark had run-ins with Reese during the national championship game a year ago.
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Similar discussions were had then, which the LSU star referenced in her postgame interviews. Fast-forward a year later, and the same attitudes follow her through another NCAA Tournament run.
The reaction was so strong that it led to multiple LSU players indicating they'd skip the traditional champions' White House visit over disagreement with First Lady Jill Biden, who at one point suggested that LSU and Iowa share the honor. The Tigers' full roster did ultimately attend.
It's the second high-profile news story to crop up in a matter of days, the other a long-form Washington Post feature focused on Kim Mulkey that the LSU coach preemptively threatened with litigation should it make false accusations about herself or her career.
Mulkey also came down with a strong rebuke on the since-edited L.A. Times column.
"I actually didn’t want us to read that article before the game, because hearing stuff like that, it’s not right, and it’s not — that type of description of us isn’t always motivating," Van Lith said. "I think, you know, columnists basically, the ‘dirty debutantes,’ that has nothing to do with sports and that is not, that’s not motivating ... because I think that that can crush your soul a little bit, that someone would ever say that about us that doesn’t know us, but again, obviously, in my opinion, I know for a fact that people see us differently because we do have a lot of black women on our team who have an attitude and like to talk trash, and people feel a way about it, but at the end of the day I’m rocking with them, because they don’t let that change who they are and they stay true to themselves."
Whether it had an effect or not, it didn't alter the result in a negative way for the Tigers, who defeated UCLA 78-69 in the Sweet 16 to advance to the rematch with Iowa. The Tigers and Hawkeys face off on Monday at 6:15 p.m.