Duke Blue Devils captain Grayson Allen says in an interview with Jeff Goodman of ESPN that he feels bad about his past tripping incidents that have tarnished his reputation throughout college basketball.
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Allen has become known recently in the basketball world more for his antics and actions during games rather than his on-court play. During a game against Louisville in his sophomore season two years ago, Allen is seen on replay intentionally sticking his leg out in front of a Louisville player while on the court. Then a few weeks later, Allen tripped a Florida State player in the final seconds of the game.
Last season, Allen had perhaps the worst incident of his career after tripping a player from Elon University. After the play, Allen was seen enraged and yelling on the Duke bench.
When Allen was asked what he thought about the incident after watching it on replay, he said he has not seen the play since it happened.
"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."
Allen was suspended indefinitely by head coach Mike Krzyzewski following that game against Elon and was stripped of his captain status. He would only end up missing one game for the incident. He said in the interview that he has to find a way to focus his emotion on his team and try to lead his teammates better this season as the lone senior on the team.
It sounds as though Allen understands that he must have an incident-free year for Duke as he tries to clean up his image around the sport and position himself for the NBA Draft next year. Allen said he felt like he had unfinished business left at Duke and wants to lead his team to a championship.
Duke opens up their season on Friday against Elon.
