PITTSBURGH—Three days after Grayson Allen tripped Xavier Rathan-Mayes in the waning seconds of Duke’s 80-65 victory against Florida State, and two days after Allen received a reprimand from the ACC, Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski shed more light on the topic after the Blue Devils’ 76-62 loss to Pittsburgh.
“We were proactive with that,” Krzyzewski said. “I called the ACC the morning after the game and told them I had to talked to [Florida State head coach] Leonard Hamilton. After I saw the thing, I brought Grayson in that night and talked to him. I told the ACC, ‘This is what we’ve done. You tell us what to do.’”
Krzyzewski did not suspend Allen, and neither did the ACC, after reviewing the incident. The sophomore guard led the Blue Devils Sunday with 22 points and shot 6-of-13 percent from the field.
“If anything was called, it would be a flagrant one,” Krzyzewski said. “I would not suspend any player for what would be a flagrant one.”
Krzyzewski also compared Allen’s actions and the ACC’s involvement to other incidences in the conference this year.
“There have been other guys who’ve hit people, and there have been no reprimands," Krzyzewski said. "I’m not knocking our conference, I’m just saying I thought they took action, and then you have to move on.”
Allen’s tripping was the second such incident of the season—the Jacksonville, Fla., native also tripped forward Ray Spalding during Duke’s 72-65 victory against Louisville Feb. 8.
Pittsburgh’s student section, the “Oakland Zoo,” booed Allen nearly every time he touched the ball Sunday and made several references to the two trips with a series of signs.
Sunday's loss was the Blue Devils' last road game of the season, but Allen is likely to hear about those trips again when Duke heads to Washington for the ACC tournament next week.
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