Angel Reese explains how national championship elevated personal brand, women's basketball: 'It's bigger than me' 

Angel Reese exploded onto the national spotlight during LSU’s national championship run in the Women’s NCAA Tournament. In particular, the Tiger superstar is seeing her social media following balloon as she’s gained millions of followers and received all sorts of messages from celebrities in the days following the win over Iowa. She hopped on ESPN’s First Take on Friday to discuss her whirlwind week since cutting down the nets.

According to ESPN, on Sunday, Reese “gained more Instagram followers in six hours than any men’s Final Four player has gotten in his entire life.” With that fact in mind, Reese was asked how she’s wrapped her head around such a drastic spike in attention.

“Aye, it’s lit,” said Reese. “So many people have reached out to me. Celebrities, rappers, NBA players, NFL players, WNBA. So just to see that they recognize and respect women’s basketball, that’s just my goal. It’s bigger than me, bigger than LSU, it’s just to grow the game and I’m excited. I get to have so many little girls that look up to me and say ‘I wanna be Angel Reese.’ And that’s the goal. I want to be able to be inspirational and just be someone that somebody can look up to. So I’m happy to be in this position.”

Next, Angel Reese was asked if she had any advice for younger people on how develop such a strong identity while in the middle of the limelight.

“Just be confident,” answered Reese. “I think my confidence is through the roof. I think that’s why a lot of brands want to work with me, because how confident I am in my skin. I get on TikTok and I just post. I don’t care. I’m just who I am and I think that’s why everyone really loves me and just appreciates who I am, because you really don’t see that.”

Reese admitted that she does sometimes struggle with all the attention, but credited the people around her for being supportive when she needed them.

“I mean, it’s hard. It’s actually hard trying to take the criticism, the negative and the positive. But I have so much support behind me. My family, friends, my coaches, teammates, my school. Everybody appreciates me and loves what I do. So it’s bigger than me honestly.”

At the end of her ESPN interview, Reese revealed that she was headed off to see her cousin and UConn men’s player Jordan Hawkins, a fellow freshly-minted national champion who prevailed over San Diego State in the NCAA tourney final on Monday with his Huskies.

“My cousin won a national championship too, so being able to see him today was fun. We got to turn up a little, made a TikTok. It’s gonna be a family cookout coming soon, it’s going to be lit.”