$1.7M NIL-valued Angel Reese starts the countdown for her graduation from LSU: "Last 4 classes"

LSU superstar forward Angel Reese dropped 16 points and 17 rebounds during the Tigers' dominant 99-68 win against the Arkansas Razorbacks on Sunday to continue her sensational form this year.

Reese celebrated her last days as an LSU student before graduation with a post on her Instagram stories encouraging her classmates and hyping up the end of her college days.

The $1.7 million On3 NIL-valued Reese captioned the post, which shows her in class:

"2020 class we finally gone walk across the STAGE ahhh! Keep pushing through, we are almost there! Last 4 classes & I graduate in MAY."

Image via Instagram

Did grades rule out Angel Reese for the top award?

Over the past two months, there has been extensive speculation about why Angel Reese was absent for four games during the earlier part of the season.

Speculation was that Reese had been suspended due to poor grades brought up by Kia Brooks, teammate Flau'Jae Johnson's mother, who had an online spat with Reese's mother, Angel Webb.

“You definitely know about grammar errors when your daughter got a 2.0 or less GPA. And in fact when writing your smart message you didn't capitalize nor did you use any periods,” Brooks wrote on Instagram.

When the John R. Wooden Award, which ranks the 15 best players in the country, left her out last year in April after being named the NCAA's Most Outstanding Player, questions were asked with the award also prioritizing good grades.

The award's criteria states:

"Candidates must be full-time students in an accredited NCAA college or university; candidates must be a full-time student making progress toward graduation and have a cumulative 2.00 grade point average since enrolling in their school; candidates must exhibit strength of character, both on and off the court ...

"Candidates should contribute to team effort; candidates must excel in both offense and defense; and candidates should be considered on their performance over the course of the entire season."

Iowa Hawkeyes record-chasing star Caitlin Clark won the award, and when questions were raised about Angel Reese missing out, LSU coach Kim Mulkey addressed the issue.

“Oh, absolutely, she is in good academic standing period,” Mulkey said per JustWomenSports. “It’s just there’s a criteria on some of these awards like, a lot of them will have community service stuff. Some of them will have GPAs, yeah. She’s academically fine.”

With Angel Reese set to finish her last classes as an LSU student, it seems she has sorted out her academic issues while having a storming season on the court.