Duke gives Grayson Allen indefinite suspension after tripping opponent
After being caught tripping an opponent in a game for the third time in a year, Duke’s Grayson Allen has been suspended indefinitely by the program.
“We have had the opportunity to thoroughly review the incident involving Grayson Allen from last night’s game against Elon,” said Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski. “As I stated last night, the incident was unacceptable and inexcusable. He took an important step last night by apologizing in person to Steven Santa Ana and Coach Matt Matheny. 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.”
Duke’s next game will be against Virginia Tech on December 31st.
Allen picked up a technical foul for tripping Elon’s Steven Santa Ana on a drive in the first half of a 72-61 win Wednesday night. That earned him a seat on the bench for the final 4:15 of the half and the start of the second half, though he returned to the game with about 16 minutes left.
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.”
Teammate Matt Jones said he tried to console the emotional Allen afterward.
“I love Grayson, he’s my brother,” Jones said. “We’ve been to battle, we’ve won a (national) championship together. We won plenty of games together. So there’s nothing really you can say.
“I just gave him a really big hug, told him, ‘I love you.’ That’s all that was, and let the silence kind of fill the void. There’s nothing really you can say about it.”
It’s officially a pattern for Allen, who was twice caught tripping opponents last winter.
On Feb. 9, Allen received a flagrant foul for extending his leg to trip Louisville’s Ray Spalding after he fell to the court and Spalding tried to go by him. Roughly two weeks later, Allen kicked up his left leg to trip Florida State’s Xavier Rathan-Mayes as Rathan-Mayes tried to run by from behind.
Allen wasn’t called for a foul there, but the Atlantic Coast Conference later reprimanded him.
