{"id":77433,"date":"2025-07-20T07:22:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T07:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/77433\/"},"modified":"2025-07-20T07:22:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T07:22:13","slug":"let-it-fly-inside-angel-reeses-sophomore-leap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/77433\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cLet it fly\u201d: Inside Angel Reese\u2019s sophomore leap"},"content":{"rendered":"

INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 The Sky<\/a> (7-14) were on the cusp of a breakthrough in early July, up big on the road against the Lynx (14-2). But Minnesota was starting to chip away.<\/p>\n

In the third quarter, Angel Reese, fresh out of a slump and back to dominating, got to the line. She said something to Lynx guard Courtney Williams after the whistle, prompting a ref to step in between them. Reese waved the official off, emotion on her face.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re good,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

When the teams met again in Chicago a few days later, the Sun-Times asked Williams about that moment \u2014 whether players need more space to let on-court heat settle on its own.<\/p>\n

But Williams said Reese wasn\u2019t even heated.<\/p>\n

What happened, she explained, was just a conversation between competitors.<\/p>\n

\u201cI fouled her,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI said, \u2018That\u2019s my foul.\u2019 She said, \u2018Yeah, that\u2019s, like, the fourth one we got all night.\u2019 She was clowning. And then because of her demeanor, everybody\u2019s like, \u2018Ahhhh.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams\u2019 point was simple: Reese often gets misread. She reacts, and people assume it\u2019s a blowup. More often, she\u2019s just in the moment.<\/p>\n

Reese is a passionate communicator and competitor, and she doesn\u2019t calibrate based on resume. In close games this season, she was just as vocal with Tina Charles<\/a> \u2014 a league legend and her mentor \u2014 as she was with Shakira Austin, her peer.<\/p>\n

At practice inside the Sachs Recreation Center, she\u2019s always giving and receiving tips. During games, Reese and Ariel Atkins, the team\u2019s leading scorer, are in constant dialogue.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see us [talking] in different little moments,\u201d Atkins told the Sun-Times. \u201cShe\u2019s telling me what she was thinking; I\u2019m telling her what I was thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the team\u2019s top two players, they made a point of being on the same page. That intentional connection has helped dig the Sky out of an early hole.<\/p>\n

They entered the season with a revamped roster and playoff expectations. But after losing point guard Courtney Vandersloot to injury<\/a>, it looked like the whole project might unravel. Atkins was still working to step into the go-to scorer role<\/a>. And Reese was struggling to finish layups.<\/p>\n

One recurring issue: finding an angle in the low post, where her defenders often have several inches on her. Reese\u2019s goal was to become more efficient around the basket, but her efficiency actually dipped to start the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kept telling myself, the storm doesn\u2019t last forever,\u201d Reese said before a game near her hometown, more relaxed with her mom in the stands.<\/p>\n

As the losses piled up, coach Tyler Marsh made an adjustment, pulling Reese out more and having her initiate the offense beyond the three-point line. There, she could lean into one of her strongest skills: her driving.<\/p>\n

The new spacing gave her cleaner finishing angles and let the team capitalize on her vision.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the [idea],\u201d Marsh said. \u201cCreating space and opportunity for her to use all the gifts and strengths that she has.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the last nine games, Reese is averaging 19.1 points on 52.5% shooting<\/a>, and she has become the Sky\u2019s best playmaker. Her 3.8 assists per game ranks third among all post players, and they\u2019re not just high-low passes or simple reversals. She\u2019s finding teammates in tight windows and on the move.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the passes she\u2019s been throwing are legit dimes,\u201d general manager Jeff Pagliocca said via text message.<\/p>\n

Opposing coaches often point out that the same traits that make Reese an elite rebounder also make her a dangerous driver: relentlessness, body control and a refusal to be denied.<\/p>\n

And like her rebounding, there are hidden tricks, too.<\/p>\n

Hailey Van Lith, a rookie and former LSU teammate, has noticed one of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s very deceptive with her eyes,\u201d Van Lith said. \u201cShe makes it look like she\u2019s about to swing it or reverse \u2014 then she attacks.\u201d<\/p>\n

That driving ability makes defenders sag off, which is part of the reason the Sky want Reese taking more mid-range jumpers. But that\u2019s still a work in progress.<\/p>\n

Sometimes she\u2019ll catch it with a cushion of space, lock eyes with the rim and freeze. You can see the wheels turning. If she takes the shot and misses, she talks to herself, then works on her form at the other end.<\/p>\n

During the rematch with the Lynx, she passed up an open look and turned to Atkins: \u201cI gotta shoot, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

Atkins\u2019 answer is usually the same: \u201cLet it fly. You\u2019re working on something, you gotta let it fly.\u201d<\/p>\n

That afternoon, Reese did. She helped build a big lead with a pull-up jumper that sent Wintrust Arena into a frenzy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like I was at the blacktop,\u201d she said after the game, the team\u2019s signature win of the season<\/a>. \u201cI felt like I was in Baltimore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Atkins just shook her head: \u201cThe in-and-out pull-up was crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even crazier to consider: Reese already changes games in so many ways, she might not even need the jumper. But modern coaches love shooting bigs for how they stretch the floor, and Reese isn\u2019t chasing just effectiveness.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be unstoppable,\u201d she said in June after the first triple-double of her career.<\/p>\n

As a rookie, she was an unstoppable rebounder, grabbing more boards than Tina Charles and Sylvia Fowles, on pace to become the best in league history. This year, she\u2019s becoming an unstoppable driver, too.<\/p>\n

If she becomes unstoppable in some other category \u2014 say, mid-range jump shooting \u2014 the rest of the league will have a problem.<\/p>\n

As Chiney Ogwumike, a former All-Star and current ESPN analyst, told the Sun-Times during All-Star Weekend: Early-career success is often powered by motor and physicality. But long careers are built on the ability to adapt and add layers.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why Reese\u2019s sophomore season \u2014 with a second All-Star selection under her belt \u2014 stands out. She isn\u2019t just weathering storms; she\u2019s growing inside of them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 The Sky (7-14) were on the cusp of a breakthrough in early July, up big on…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":77434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[62,67,132,68,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-77433","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-united-states","10":"tag-unitedstates","11":"tag-us","12":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114884361718024914","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}