Old North Banter
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Duke Blue Devils: Digging under Grayson Allen’s Kick

By John Woodcock

Dec 21, 2016; Greensboro, NC, USA; Duke Blue Devils guard Grayson Allen (3) covers his head after getting called for a flagrant foul in the first half against the Elon Phoenix at Greensboro Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Jeremy Brevard-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 21, 2016; Greensboro, NC, USA; Duke Blue Devils guard Grayson Allen (3) covers his head after getting called for a flagrant foul in the first half against the Elon Phoenix at Greensboro Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Jeremy Brevard-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Duke Blue Devils have an interesting call to make regarding Grayson Allen. What will Coach K do?

The Duke Blue Devils have a controversy brewing on their hands. Last night they beat Elon in the Greensboro Colosseum. No surprise there. The surprise was seeing Grayson Allen trip or kick one of the Elon players in a moment of frustration or something. Perhaps it should not be a surprise considering Allen tripped or kicked two players last year.

What is obvious is that this trend cannot continue. No one has the access to the secret doings of Coach Mike Krzyzewski. We don’t know how he has handled this situation before and we are told that he gave Allen a talking to in the locker room. Allen also did not play at the end of the first half or the beginning of the second after his technical foul call.

Last year the ACC almost stepped in over Allen’s second tripping or kicking incident. Will they have to do so again? Why can’t Coach K do anything other brow beat the press over their own practices? Is this really the Coach K that we are supposed to revere and cherish?

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The answer, as always, is yes and no. Coach K has always done things his own way. He has written books on his methodology and others have written books on their understanding of his methodology. If the views aren’t consistent, check the publication date. Perhaps it was written too early. Business books written by president-elect Donald Trump changed significantly as he gained more experience.

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    • There has always been a military ethos surrounding Krzyzewski. A former West Pointer who uses those values of leadership to instill into young men who go win championships. Yet as time has gone on Coach K has had to adapt to new environments in the sport. Instead of getting Christian Laettner for four years, you get Brandon Ingram for one.

    Coach K has jumped fully into this mode with two feet as his career begins to wind down. One of his hidden secrets was that different players require different coaching methods. That is why he could take over an Olympic team. His my way or highway method would never have worked with them. You can see what similar ideas did to Larry Brown.

    So now we have Coach K with a split team. On one end are the Amile Jeffersons and Matt Joneses; these are older school players who have probably been maximized by Coach K and need his grindstone. On the other end are Harry Giles and Jayson Tatum; these are freshmen who aren’t going to be around long enough for huge skill development and thus you can only coach what they are now and not what they will become later.

    In the middle of these players with different needs is Allen. Allen is a National Player of the Year candidate with skill. He was a highly rated freshman and a great sophomore. Then he broke the trend and came back for one more season. Maybe he wanted a title. Maybe he wanted a guaranteed lottery selection, but his return increased his value to Coach K tremendously. It also makes how K treats Allen important.

    K wants to win in these last few years. He has to attract the freshmen who think they are a year away from the pros to do that. He has to compete with Kentucky for those kids. John Calipari is considered a players coach. K is not, and if he does not protect his players it will be noticed by future recruits. Will the coach stand up for me in my perceived darkest hour?

    To this pressure add one more thing. Coach K is incredibly sensitive. The reason he stiff-armed the press about Allen is because he wants complete freedom to make his own decision. He had not had much chance to think on it. The only clue we had to his state of mind was when he let Allen play most of the second half.

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    He also resented that the press would question his judgment after forty years of coaching. He insisted that Allen had been punished in some way. Perhaps Allen is one of these folks who rips himself hard for his own failings and the emotion he showed on the bench was evidence of that. Maybe he had to polish lockers at halftime. Or maybe K believed a man to man apology was enough because Allen did apologize to the Elon player after.

    Yet this is unsatisfactory because this is the same Coach K who told Dillon Brooks of Oregon that he had no need to showboat and he was better than that when Duke lost to Oregon in last year’s NCAA Tournament. Does Coach K’s philosophy really just boil down to ‘us against the world?’ Loyalty within the family (unless you’re Rasheed Sulaimon) and respect from outside of it?

    UPDATE: 12:30 PM – Duke has suspended Allen indefinitely. Coach K continued his ‘he knows best’ line.

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