Duke star and serial kicker Grayson Allen should be suspended five games for latest tech

Duke's Grayson Allen has a major problem, and it's time the ACC dealt with it in a major way.

The fiery Duke junior was at the center of another bewildering, on-court kicking fiasco on Wednesday — his third in the last year — when he kicked Elon's Steven Santa Ana late in the first half of their game at the Greensboro Coliseum. After Allen was called for a defensive foul while Santa Ana was driving toward the basket, he turned around, located his opponent and swung his right leg with power, connecting with the back of Santa Ana's knee. Allen appeared incredulous about both the foul and his Draymond Green impersonation and was assessed a technical foul.

Afterward, he threw a bizarre temper tantrum on the bench, where he sat for the remainder of the first half and the start of the second. He reentered before the first TV timeout and finished the game with three points, his lowest total since his freshman season.

This was a virtual replay of two separate incidents from last season, the first in which Allen missed a layup against Louisville, fell to the court and then swung out his foot to trip the Cardinals' Ray Spalding. Two weeks later, in the final two seconds of Duke's 15-point win over Florida State, Allen sneakily stuck his foot out behind him to trip the Seminoles' Xavier Rathan-Mayes. He received a flagrant one in the first incident but nothing for the second except a public reprimand by the ACC. Including Wednesday's move, the conference's preseason player of the year hasn't been ejected or disciplined off the court for any of the three incidents.

 

Now it's time for the ACC to finally, belatedly make him pay. Allen deserves a multi-game suspension both as a sanction for Wednesday's kick, a retroactive punishment for the other two and a message of deterrence for the future. That Allen has gone this long without receiving any real punishment makes the ACC look impotent and Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski appear complicit — not in his player's dirtiness but in his enabling of it. If Allen had been suspended last year, does Wednesday's incident happen? It's debatable.

The mere fact that Coach K brought Grayson back into the game early in the second half was literally unbelievable — the sort of slap on the wrist that does nothing to discourage or deter Allen's issues, whatever they may be. (And there are issues: His outburst on the bench after coming out of the game verged on the unhinged.) These are the types of plays Coach K has looked the other way at in his more than 30 years on Duke's bench. Remember when Christian Laettner stomped on Aminu Timberlake's chest in the 1992 regional final against Kentucky — the game that's often regarded as the best in the history of the sport? Coach K didn't take him out for anything but a spell — after all, he was perfect from the floor. The sainted coach tries to stay above the fray, but by merely labeling Allen's play as "inexcusable," which is how he described it to reporters after the game, Krzyzewski gets right in the muck with the dirtiest player that's ever taken the court at Cameron. But don't worry - "we had a long talk afterward," said Krzyzewski. (To his credit, Allen offered a sincere-sounding apology after the game - not one of those "I'm sorry if you were offended" ones - a genuine one in which he apologized to Santa Ana, the officials and his team and called himself selfish. It was far more classy than his coach's non-apology. Words are cheap though, especially for a three-time offender.)

 

How has he gotten away with this nonsense for so long? Look no further than the name on Allen's chest. If he didn't go to Duke he would have been suspended after the second trip last year or ejected on Wednesday. If Allen played for a coach who wasn't able to get away with not suspending a guy who thinks he's Conor McGregor, he'd have sat for a game last year too. It's the Duke double standard, the kind Coach K used to whine about North Carolina getting under Dean Smith.

That has to end now. The ACC should announce Thursday that Allen is suspended for a minimum of five games. Anything less would play into the idea that there's a different set of rules for both Duke and conference stars (especially the ones who play at Duke). The Devils don't play again until New Year's Eve, when they start their ACC schedule. Without another non-conference game looming until the NCAA tournament (in other words, no more Elons) a statement can be made. But opening with Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Boston College and Florida State is hardly a murderer's row for the Dukies, which is why going to five games — which would include a Jan. 14 showdown again Louisville — matters so much.

Everybody with the power to do something about Grayson Allen has punted on every single occasion. Now it's time to kick him where it actually counts.