Last week, as DJ Cooper was busy leading his Ohio Bobcats through the first weekend of the NCAA tournament, he was also making headlines for what happened as a result of his last trip to the tournament.
After scoring 23 points and handing out eight assists as a freshman as the Bobcats knocked off No. 3 seed Georgetown in the 2010 tournament, Cooper received a good amount of attention from high-major programs looking to convince him (illegally?) to transfer.
The schools after him the hardest? Tennessee and Baylor, or so he said.
Today, Cooper issued a statement through Ohio saying “No schools have directly contacted me or my family since I signed at Ohio University”, which is exactly the opposite of what he told reporters last week.
I’ve heard of ‘he-said, he-said’ situations, but I’ve never run into one where both ‘hes’ are the same person.
If I had to guess, I’d say that the initial comments were probably the truth, and that the statement was an effort to: a) get the media to stop asking questions and/or investigating and b) try to keep the peace with the folks on staff at Baylor and Tennessee.
Scott Drew and Bruce Pearl already have enough enemies in this industry.