LSU stars Angel Reese, Flau’jae Johnson to participate in 2023 USA Women’s Basketball AmeriCup team trials

LSU women’s basketball stars Angel Reese and Flau’jae Johnson are two of the country’s 22 college basketball players that have been selected to participate in the 2023 USA Women’s Basketball AmeriCup team trials. The trials will take place in Colorado Springs from May 11-15, as the two will be competing for a spot to be in the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup the first week of July in Leon, Mexico.

This isn’t Reese’s first rodeo with Team USA, as she participated in the USA Basketball Women’s U19 World Cup team trials in 2021. She is coming off of a stellar and historic season for the Tigers where she was a First Team All-American selection and set the NCAA record with 34 double-doubles last season. Her 23 points per game and 15.4 rebounds led the SEC, as she helped lead the Tigers all the way to a national championship win.

On the biggest stage in the national championship game, Reese scored 15 points and 10 rebounds, capped off by an infamous celebration directed towards Iowa‘s Caitlin Clark that sent waves across the entire sports landscape. With that came an influx of media attention, as she increased her social media following by 1.3 million followers in the week following the national championship and her NIL Valuation skyrocketed from under $400,000 before March to $1.3 million after.

Flau’jae Johnson will be participating in her first AmeriCup Team Trials after securing the SEC Freshman of the Year award to go along with her national championship. Johnson averaged 11 points and 5.9 rebounds per game last season, and has also been getting in on the NIL action with Reese. Johnson is ranked No. 2 right behind Reese in On3’s College Women’s Basketball NIL Rankings, with her valuation currently sitting at $824,000 after being at $616,000 just ten weeks ago.

The duo has recently penned joint NIL deals with Campus Ink and Raising Canes, and will be looking to find similar success they’ve found off the court this offseason on the court in the USA Women’s Basketball AmeriCup trials.

LSU is just one of three schools to have multiple players selected to participate in Team USA’s trials. The team will be coached by Washington State head coach Kamie Ethridge along with Cincinnati‘s Katrina Merriweather and South Dakota State’s Aaron Johnston. If Reese and Johnson make the cut, they will participate in training camp at Colorado Springs in June, and look to help Team USA secure their fifth AmeriCup gold medal.