Hate me now BRING IT. No seriously this was just put out there by someone online associated with athletics. Dj would have to red-shirt but is this something he would do?? I like Stevie but is he ready for a whole season starting? Pretty sure the coaching choice affects this and or Groce offering DJ a spot.
No, no, thank you for bringing it up. Even though "someone online associated with athletics" could be anyone from the AD to a waterboy and makes the foundation as strong a s twig in the sand as the tide comes in, it is worth allowing folks to know what a random person anonymously put out on the internet.
That said, despite Cooper being from the state Groce is going to, there is no reasons to believe that his transferring would take place, or even make sense. He is on track to graduate from Ohio, he is on track to put numbers up that will make him an all-time great, he would need to sit out a year before playing at Illinois, and the layoff could do more harm than good for his NBA aspirations. He would sacrifice a year's worth of salary of playing ball (NBA, or Europe) to reunite with Groce. Plus he would be leaving friends he has made on the team. In fact, I think we would be hard pressed to find a single example of a three-year senior starter and leader that left a team to follow his coach. So consider it brought up, considered, and dismissed at this time by rational and reasonable people. Now if we bring in a coach that runs a slow-down, prodding offense and announces he is changing the culture and approach of Ohio basketball, and tells the seniors he is going in a different, then feel free to ask your confidant associated with athletics if he has heard anything new from Cooper.