Grayson Allen and the Art of Tripping

By: Bradley Stewart
February 8, 2016, a date that will live in infamy for Duke star Grayson Allen.  On that day, Allen’s reputation as the “next hated Duke player” was born with his first tripping incident.  He tripped Louisville’s Raymond Spalding in a nationally televised game.  Less than three weeks later, G Allen tripped Florida State’s Xavier Rathan-Mayes in the waning seconds of a blowout win.  This trip was clearly more intentional and flagrant than the preceding one.  Allen soon received a reprimand from the ACC about the incidents, but no direct discipline.  

Three hundred and seventeen days after the initial trip, Allen tripped Elon’s Steven Santa Ana.  He received a technical on the play, his first one for tripping an opposing player.  Allen, visibly distraught from the play, threw a “tantrum”.  A day later, Coach Krzyzewski suspended Allen indefinitely and stripped him of his captaincy, a prestige honor at Duke Basketball.  Duke lost the first game of his suspension in blowout fashion, 89-57.  On Wednesday it was announced that Grayson Allen would start against Georgia Tech, who just upset North Carolina.  Allen scored 15 points in Duke’s 110-57 rout of the Yellow Jackets.  But the question remains: What prompted Coach K to end Allen’s “indefinite suspension” and should it have been longer?

Looking at it from Coach K’s point of view, it becomes quite clear on why he would bring him back.  Mike Krzyzewski is having back surgery on Friday and will be out of the coaching seat for at least three weeks.  Since it was Coach K’s suspension, it was up to him on when to unsuspend him.  And since he is going to be out for multiple weeks, he would not be in a position to bring him back.  Grayson Allen and Coach K have conversed many times since the suspension and it is evident, in Coach K’s eyes, Allen was ready to take the floor.  

Now onto the question of if he should have been suspended longer.  It is important to look at what other collegiate sports do when a person gets a major foul.  In college football, if a player is ejected, which Allen was only given a technical and not ejected, they miss the first half of the next game.  One may argue that Allen was “intentionally trying to injure people” but so do football players who commit targeting penalties, which are a lot more dangerous than tripping someone. Allen’s one game suspension ends up looking a lot more severe than once thought, as he had no way to make a positive impact in their loss to Virginia Tech.  Again, a targeting penalty results in suspension of one half, allowing the player to come back in for the second half, meaning you could potentially end someone’s career and still have an important influence in the next game.  His “tantrum” on the bench was most likely caused because Coach K told him that if he tripped another player he would be suspended, making Allen upset at himself.

Personally, at the time of the incident, I thought Allen should have been suspended for four games, but that would have most likely changed once it was decided that Coach K was having back surgery.  At the end of the day, Grayson Allen is back playing basketball for Duke and it supplies them with a full arsenal of weapons, making them look more and more dangerous, as evident in Wednesday’s 110-87 rout.