LSU to visit White House to celebrate national championship after all

The LSU women’s basketball team will head to the White House to celebrate their national championship after all.

LSU confirmed Thursday that the team will accept an invitation from President Joe Biden to celebrate their championship in Washington, D.C., according to The Associated Press. There is no date for the Tigers’ visit yet, and it’s unclear who will attend.

The customary trip was in question almost immediately after LSU beat Iowa 102-85 in the national title game in Dallas last week. First Lady Jill Biden, who attended the game, said the following day that she wanted to tell her husband to invite both the Tigers and the Hawkeyes to the White House.

“I know we’ll have the champions come to the White House, we always do,” she said. “So, we hope LSU will come. But you know, I’m going to tell Joe I think Iowa should come too because they played such a good game.”

That didn’t sit well with a lot of people. Biden’s press secretary walked those comments back the next day, and both Iowa star Caitlin Clark and Iowa coach Lisa Bluder declined that idea.

LSU star Angel Reese was very vocal about her displeasure with it too. She called it “A JOKE” on Twitter, and then suggested that they wouldn’t go to the White House, but would rather visit former first lady Michelle Obama instead. Despite being "hurt" by Biden's comments, Reese said on Friday morning that she would attend the visit to the White House with her team.

Reese was also the subject of criticism for a taunt she directed at Clark in the moments after the game — though Reese, Clark and others have shut that down. Clark, who is white, has used that same taunt plenty of times herself.

"All year, I was critiqued about who I was," Reese said. "The narrative — I don’t fit the narrative. I don't fit into the box that y’all want me to be in. 'I’m too hood. I’m too ghetto.' Y’all told me that all year.

"But when other people do it, y’all don’t say nothing. So this is for the girls that look like me, that’s gonna speak on for what they believe in. It’s unapologetically you. And that’s what I did it for tonight."