The LSU Tigers’ women’s basketball team knocked off the Iowa Hawkeyes on Sunday afternoon to win the first national championship in program history. In the aftermath of the game, a whole lot of people embarrassed themselves in one way or another while discussing the champions — Keith Olbermann, in particular, looked awful for making a big deal out of Tigers star Angel Reese celebrating in the face of Iowa standout Caitlin Clark, who is likewise known as one of the most willing trash talkers in the game.
One person who has egg on their face in the aftermath is Dr. Jill Biden. The First Lady of the United States attended the game and, in the aftermath, said that she would recommend Iowa joins LSU at the White House when the champions visit, because “they played such a good game.” Reese called this “a joke,” and on Tuesday morning, Fox Sports analyst Shannon Sharpe took a few minutes on Undisputed to warn Biden that this could cost her husband a second term as Commander-in-Chief.
Shannon Sharpe goes off on Jill Biden for wanting to invite Iowa and LSU to the White House pic.twitter.com/Z6BvZmmc1P
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 4, 2023
After going on a rant about participation trophies — he’s not a fan! — Sharpe brought up the bad “optics” of Biden, who is white, inviting Iowa, which is led by a white player and has a number of other white players in its rotation.
“Come on, Dr. Biden, you know better than this,” Sharpe said. “Did you forget who helped put your husband in the White House? You’re gonna find out a very serious, hard lesson in ’24. You’ll be like a Kentucky or Duke freshman, you’ll be one-and-done. Now, play with it if you want to, now you try to appeal to a certain group that don’t give a you-know-what about your husband, every chance you get. You see how popular you are, you see how popular your husband is. I’ll tell you what, he’ll drop another five percent if he do this.”
In the early hours of Tuesday morning, Biden’s press secretary put out a statement indicating that the First Lady “intended to applaud the historic game and all women athletes.” The statement ended by saying that the Tigers, and only the Tigers, would be celebrated at the White House when the time comes for a visit.