Duke made the right call in suspending Grayson Allen

By choosing to suspend Grayson Allen himself and making the time frame indefinite, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski did the best thing possible for his team.

Duke suspended their star guard Grayson Allen indefinitely after he tripped an opposing player in the Blue Devils’ game against Elon Wednesday night. This was the third time Allen has tripped an opposing player dating back to last season, and this time coach Mike Krzyzewski decided a suspension was necessary.

Coach K and Duke made the right decision by suspending Allen themselves and by making the suspension indefinite.

After the foul and Allen’s reaction went viral, speculation ran rampant about what would happen. Would Allen be suspended by the ACC? Would Duke suspend him? Would the country’s most notorious villain be let off the hook yet again? Just about 13 hours after the conclusion of the game, the news broke that the team was taking matters into its own hands.

By choosing to suspend Allen, Coach K and Duke are showing the nation publicly that they disapprove and that this kind of action is unacceptable for an athlete on such a big stage. Rather than giving the national media an opening to latch onto the story that Duke didn’t want to suspend him because they value winning basketball games over what is right, they slammed that door shut.

Had Duke waited around and let the conference suspend Allen, the nation’s attention still would have fallen on them. If a potential conference punishment had been too short, the internet would’ve cried out for the team to add to the suspension. If there wasn’t a punishment at all, the outcry would have been even louder toward the Blue Devils. The only way to win was to levy the punishment themselves.

Not only did Duke make the right move by taking Allen’s suspension into their own hands, but they did the best possible thing by not specifying a time frame. Allen seemed sincerely apologetic and acted like someone who knew they had made a mistake, so it’s unlikely that this indefinite suspension is to take as long as they need for Allen to learn from what he’s done.

This isn’t Draymond Green denying that multiple kicks to the groins or faces of opponents was intentional — Allen owned up to his mistake and apologized to Steven Santa Ana and Elon coach Matt Matheny in person. By giving himself the ability to end Allen’s suspension whenever he chooses, Coach K put himself in the best position possible.

No matter how many games they imposed on Allen, the media whirlwind would have found a way to pin blame for an inadequate penalty on the team since the incident is still fresh in the public mind. This way, when the moratorium is lifted, there will be other top stories and breaking news which should allow Allen’s return to come much more subtly than it would have with a countdown.

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On top of helping to keep public scrutiny at bay, an indefinite time frame allows Krzyzewski to gauge how the team looks without Allen and more easily determine the best time to bring him back. The Blue Devils’ ACC schedule starts fairly innocuously, with a game at Virginia Tech before coming home to take on Georgia Tech and Boston College.

While playing the Hokies on the road will be tough, Coach K should have more than enough talent between his heralded freshmen, breakout star Luke Kennard, and veteran seniors to feel confident going in. Back-to-back home games against the conference’s two worst teams are more than manageable after that.

Next up is when the schedule gets tough with road games against ranked foes Florida State and Louisville. Should Allen’s suspension last through the first three games, Coach K can determine how the team looks without him before deciding whether or not to bring him back for either of those games.

The first game, at Florida State, should be more manageable than going to the same KFC Yum! Center where Kentucky recently fell. That leaves it more than feasible that should the team roll through their first three games with no missteps, if Allen misses that game as well. If the team looks disjointed and struggles with the lowly Yellow Jackets or Eagles, Coach K could make the call to bring Allen back for the game in Tallahassee.

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Krzyzewski knows his team best and regardless of when it is, Allen’s return will surely come at the best time for him and for the team. By announcing the suspension himself, Allen’s head coach helped his team weather the worst of the firestorm and put himself in the best position possible to minimize the damage. As usual, Coach K appears to have made the right call.