Duke star Grayson Allen, the serial tripper and college basketball’s public enemy No. 1, has been suspended indefinitely, the school announced Thursday morning.
The decision comes after Allen was caught Wednesday night tripping yet another opponent — for the third time in a year — though it registers as a bit of a surprise. In the aftermath, coach Mike Krzyzewski stubbornly refused to reveal any reprimands for Allen, even while calling his behavior “unacceptable.”
“I handle things the way I handle them,” Krzyzewski said. “I think I’ve handled this correctly and moving forward I will continue to handle it correctly, and I don’t need to satisfy what other people think I should do.”
But everyone agrees: Allen needs to get his act together, before he really hurts someone.
“We have had the opportunity to thoroughly review the incident involving Grayson Allen from last night’s game against Elon,” Coach K said in a less haughty statement Thursday. “As a program, we needed to take further steps regarding his actions that do not meet the standards of Duke Basketball. To that end, we have determined that Grayson will be suspended from competition for an indefinite amount of time.”
Allen picked up a technical foul for tripping Elon’s Steven Santa Ana on a drive, then threw a tantrum when he went to the bench for the remainder of the first half. Afterward, Allen met with Santa Ana and Elon coach Matt Matheny to apologize before hanging his head and fighting back tears while talking to reporters in the locker room.
“Just talking about what led up to it is just an excuse,” Allen said. “There’s no excuse for it.”
It should be noted the next three games for Duke — comfortably ranked at No. 5 and absolutely loaded with talent — are easy ACC matchups: at Virginia Tech, vs. Georgia Tech, vs. Boston College.
With AP