Duke's Grayson Allen opens up on the tripping incidents that ruined his reputation

Duke's Grayson Allen opens up on the tripping incidents that ruined his reputation
At ACC Basketball Media Day in October, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said that there likely isn’t a player in college basketball who has been through the range of experiences that team captain Grayson Allen has over three years in Durham. Allen averaged just four points a game as a freshman and barely played, yet became a hero for the Blue Devils in the NCAA Tournament, propelling the team to a national championship. The following fall, Allen was expected to make the jump as a college basketball superstar with a clear path to the NBA – but Allen’s sophomore and junior seasons will be more well-remembered for a series of tripping incidents than for anything he accomplished on the court. Allen received a reprimand from the ACC for appearing to deliberately trip two players in 2016, and as a junior Allen was stripped of his team captaincy after tripping an Elon player. Following that incident, an emotional Allen was enraged on the bench. Coach K would go on to suspend Allen for one game, and the team that began the year as the preseason No. 1 crashed out of the NCAA tournament in the second round. Allen returns as the sole captain of the top-ranked Blue Devils for the 2017-18 season, and he told ESPN’s Jeff Goodman that he never watched a replay of what happened in the Elon game because he knew the repercussions of what he had done. “I know there’s half the basketball world that thinks I’m this hothead, dirty player who can’t get anything under control, and who probably thinks I’m extremely arrogant. A selfish guy. …. I didn’t watch it. I’m being honest, I didn’t watch it. I knew what had happened. I knew that everyone wasn’t going to understand why I was mad on the bench. I know a lot of people thought I was mad about a foul call, or something like that. I knew I fouled the guy. I was mad about everything else I knew was going to happen…. A storm. A media storm. I knew I messed up again, and that’s a stain on my character and reputation, something that I didn’t want. I felt bad about it.” Duke will open the season Friday against Elon, and Allen will once again share a court with Steven Santa Ana, the player he tripped.

November 9, 2017 at 08:42AM