By now you should be aware that Zaide Lowery is no longer on the Marquette men’s basketball roster. If not, we’ve got a whole post about that already. Go read that to make sure you’re up to speed as to what’s going on here.
What we’re doing here is [loud sighing noises] admitting that Noted UConn Ball Knower No Escalators is right.
A slight correction here for the purposes of our discussion: If you track down the Famously Fake post and the troll post that Marquette amplified — please don’t, I did it already, and I didn’t enjoy it — No Escalators has the timeline out of order.
The correct order is, by way of timestamps on Sunday, December 28, as I’m seeing them in Central time on Monday morning:
3:16 — Troll poster says there was an altercation
5:30 — Marquette announces Lowery is gone
5:39 — Famously Fake post repeats troll poster’s story but with exaggerated details
7:45 — Marquette amplifies the troll post
8:38 — Marquette edits the amplifying post
But — oh, this is so annoying to say out loud — No Escalators is right.
Whatever did happen that led to Zaide Lowery leaving the program is only truly known to Lowery, head coach Shaka Smart, and anyone else that might have been a part of the conversations that those two had. That we can safely say is 100% true, no matter what.
What you 100% can not do if you are running the social media for a Division 1 men’s basketball team is take the sentence “Zaide Lowery will not return for the second semester after being dismissed from the team by Shaka Smart following an altercation with assistant coach Cody Hatt,” and REPOST IT MERELY SAYING “Inaccurate.”
Why can’t you do that?
BECAUSE THE OBVIOUS FOLLOW UP QUESTION IS “What part is accurate, the dismissal or the altercation?” If the quote post was “100% wrong,” then well, okay, you shot down a lie, I wouldn’t have done that if I were you, but at least you called a lie a lie.
And then, nearly an hour later, whoever was at the keyboard realized that they just opened that door, so they fixed it by editing the post — AND WE CAN SEE YOU EDITED IT, for the love of God, use the delete button and start over or better yet just stop after the deleting — to say “The information regarding the altercation is inaccurate.”
I want to circle back to my post on Lowery’s departure from the program. This is why I linked to it up top, because something I wrote on Sunday evening is now incredibly prescient:
I find the phrasing interesting.
The tweet and the graphic say “departs program.” The text of the release in the graphic say “will not return to the program” as announced by the head coach. That feels like two different things, doesn’t it? “Departs” sounds like it’s Lowery’s choice…. “will not return” doesn’t quite get to that same point.
If you have said “the information about the altercation is inaccurate,” then BY DEFAULT, the information about THE DISMISSAL is accurate. In the original announcement, you made it sound, at least by the headline, that Lowery was choosing to leave.
By acknowledging the troll post that you admit is saying things that are not true, you have, apparently announced that Shaka Smart has actually dismissed Zaide Lowery from the program.
WHICH RAISES A NEW QUESTION: Why? What happened that you didn’t put in the release if it was enough to warrant a dismissal? Why didn’t you put it in the release? Why did you decide to not call it a dismissal publicly if it is in fact a dismissal, which is A THING YOU ARE NOW TELLING EVERYONE IS TRUE, even if you’re saying it on accident.
Oh, and by the way: “The information regarding the altercation is inaccurate” is not denying that an altercation took place. Just like saying “inaccurate” originally raises follow up questions, now we’re left asking the question of whether nor not there was an altercation at all and who was involved.
This is a thing I have to say out loud, because Marquette’s social media management has made me think it: What if Lowery’s departure from the team has nothing to do with an altercation that did happen between two people, which may or may not have included assistant coach Cody Hatt, which is a totally separate thing that has somehow leaked out into the world and has been accidentally tied to the Lowery departure. Do I sound like Charlie in the mail room explaining Pepe Silva to Mac right now? Sure do, but I’m only here because Marquette’s use of Twitter has made me do it, and that’s the real problem.
Why are you now mixing in a healthy dash of dishonesty and confusion coming from the men’s basketball program on top of the 5-8 record, the #114 KenPom.com ranking, and the worst in the Big East #176 NET ranking? No one’s happy with what’s going on with the men’s basketball team in the first place, Lowery’s departure is just one more straw on the camel’s back, and now you’re introducing half-truths and dodgy messaging from the social media team on top of that, too?
The part that annoys me about all of this? Marquette’s athletic department didn’t learn a single lesson about responding to fake troll accounts nearly two years ago.
The part that REALLY annoys me about all of this? I had to say No Escalators was right. Saying they’re funny is one thing, but pointing out how intelligent and with it they are? Admitting they’re a hoopy frood who really knows where their towel is? Just the absolute worst.
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