I’ll admit right up front that I am not in the know about West Texas A&M University athletics.

I’ve not been a close student of the dynamics that run the program. I do, however, wonder — right along with a lot of other Texas Panhandle residents — about the timing of today’s stunning announcement that WT men’s basketball coach Rick Cooper is retiring seven games into a 30-game season.

http://amarillo.com/news/local-news/2013-12-05/wt-mens-basketball-coach-rick-cooper-resign-immediately

He says this is the “right time.” The right time? What in the world can possibly by “right” about leaving your team when its season is just getting started. He won his last game, against Pittsburg State. He had a whole rest of the season to play.

He retires? Now?

That, of course, assumes there isn’t some compelling health reason that forced him to retire.

Cooper was the most winning coach in WT men’s basketball history. He put together a solid program.

I don’t know Cooper. I’ve heard that he coaches with, um, intensity. I was visiting at lunch today with some of my fellow Rotary Club members about Cooper’s announcement. One of my pals talked about Cooper’s aggressive coaching style, and I mentioned the late Joe Kerbel, the fiery WT football coach who dropped dead at a young age. Kerbel routinely went ballistic on the sidelines of WT football games. Perhaps the men’s basketball coach wanted to avoid that fate.

I don’t know the particulars.

Nor do I know what prompts a coach to declare his retirement is coming at the “right time” barely a quarter of the way into a season — unless there is some unknown factor at play here.

I’m hoping for a more complete explanation.