Highly touted freshman point guard Sharife Cooper is rumored to have not been practicing with the team for undisclosed reasons, according to a handful of Auburn beat writers. Sharife is expected to be ready to go before the season opener against St. Joes.
We discussed the ramifications of why the university may not have decided to spill this information of today’s edition of The Drive with Bill Cameron and Dan Peck.
“I only think it’s the job of the university to confirm it if it were a situation where Sharife Cooper was not going to play at all this year, and Auburn knew it,” said Dan Peck. “If Auburn knew it, and Sharife was out for the season, no matter what, I don’t think it gives you much of a strategic edge to keep that new secret from the people. I think if you know that he’s not going to play all season, then there’s little benefit to keeping that a secret. Anything short of that, you know, why say anything publicly?”
“That’s a separate issue from reporting. If a reporter has known Sharife Cooper was not going to practice for a while and kept it secret because he didn’t want to ruffle feathers in the athletic department- but JG Tate said something online about it in the last day or so- now we have beat writers willing to at least mention that there’s something going on with Sharife, which to me changes the tone of the story. It’s not an anonymous rumor in the internet that Sharife Cooper may or may not be a participant in Auburn basketball right now, it’s a beat writer saying saying that.”
“it’s not alleged that he hasn’t practiced, said Bill Cameron. “It’s actual.”
The news was also mentioned by a couple of Montgomery based radio stations.
“Once a member of the media- especially someone who is well sourced- is willing to put their name to an aspect of a story, repeating it or sharing what that person said is fair game,” Peck said. “With regards to Cooper, it seems like people that follow Auburn basketball are putting some sort of a confirmation on Sharife Cooper not practicing the last couple of weeks.”
Listen to The Drive with Bill Cameron from 4pm-6pm on ESPN 106.7 FM.
