Site News: Wars and Rumors of Wars
The last few days have been odd, especially considering it’s the summer time, for WKU athletics, and specifically for WKU basketball.
The last few days have been odd, especially considering it’s the summer time, for WKU athletics, and specifically for WKU basketball.
The school announced that Damari Parris’ scholarship won’t be renewed for 2017/18 and beyond, and just hours later, it was reported that assistant coach Shammond Williams — and, also as notably, godfather to Mitchell Robinson — is leaving the Hill, with no official announcement coming from the school and no mention of what other opportunities (if any other opportunities) are on Williams’ horizon. (However, it is worth noting that Williams is no longer listed on WKU’s website along with the rest of the coaching staff.)
With all of these events, WKU fans are talking. And that’s good! Communication among communities of fans — sports fans, movie or TV show fans, music fans, you name it — is almost always a good thing.
That is, until folks start talking out of their, and excuse the phrase, ass.
There’s a lot of worry about a variety of topics, specifically surrounding WKU basketball and an already mentioned incoming player. And it’s fine to express those worries. Where we enter some gray area, however, is when people begin to speak as if it’s fact when, while there might be dots to connect or pieces to fit together, there’s no hard actual proof.
We’re not trying to solve a murder or figure out a whodoneit. We aren’t detectives. We are fans.
With all of this discussion going on, we’ve had a few people reach out to us and ask us, essentially, if we are going to give a platform for these rumors and theories. If we will breathe life into things that wouldn’t have life otherwise.
This post is to act as a “rest assured,” article.
We, as a writing staff, have talked it over and have decided that, unless it is reported elsewhere, we will not shine a light on it here. You’re not going to see us try to race to beat Brad Stephens or Chad Bishop (or even Elliott Pratt) for a scoop or a story.
We exist to express thoughts freely, to interact with WKU fans, and to give you — the reader and the Topper fan — a place to voice your concerns, thoughts, feelings…whatever you have. We exist only to act as a more formal community of fans.
We also, hopefully, exist to keep things in perspective. Trust me, I know all too well how easy it is to get involved with something your passionate about — once I find a topic I’m interested in, I dive deep (why do you think I’m on my fourth website writting about WKU?), and if you’re reading this, or have ever read us, I’m sure you’re of the same mindset.
And with that passion comes both an eternal sense of optimism and pessimism.
So, where do we fit in with all of this? We are establishing some rules or guidelines for ourselves.
We will not “report” rumors that have nothing behind it other than someone heard something. We had a Facebook commenter say they heard that big news was on the horizon. I’m not saying he’s lying, I’m just saying you wont see that reiterated on this platform.
We will, if the occasion feels right, interact with fans about rumors. It’s one thing to dedicate space on this particular website to a rumor. It’s quite another to engage in conversation of Facebook, Twitter or elsewhere. As much fun as it is to write articles, the best part about this venture is interacting on Twitter with you. So please continue to do so, we just might not be as vocal when something doesn’t seem like it may be true.
We will always be careful to mention when something is official and when something has been “reported” elsewhere. Again, we aren’t in this to break news. We are in this to grow the love and knowledge of WKU, to express our opinions and to, again, interact with you.
Hopefully this clears up any worry or concern you may have about how we view this space and our role not only in this space, but in the community of fans, bloggers and writers.
If you have any further questions, please feel free to reach out. If you want to chat — about any topic at any time — also feel free to reach out. Just last month, we launched a Facebook page, and you know we are busy busy busy on the Twitter machine.
I thank you for your time to read through this, and let’s anxiously await the start of the 2017/18 WKU athletics season together.
Stand up and cheers.