Junior Grayson Allen shot poorly for the third consecutive game in Sunday’s Hall of Fame Tip-Off championship game against No. 21 Rhode Island, but Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski chalked the performance of his junior captain up to injuries that have mounted throughout the week.
Allen shot 3-of-11 from the field in the Blue Devils’ 75-65 win against the Rams, scoring just 10 points despite playing 39 minutes. The preseason All-American has caught his fair share of bumps and bruises this week—he went to the locker room during Tuesday’s loss to No. 7 Kansas and Saturday’s win against Penn State due to lower-body injuries.
After Saturday’s game, Krzyzewski said that Allen—who is known for an aggressive style of play and often takes a beating driving to the basket—hurt his leg against the Jayhawks and his toe against the Nittany Lions. He said the junior guard is at about 50 percent health-wise, and his status for Sunday’s game was up in the air despite Duke’s shortened bench.
“We didn’t know if he was going to play or not. He’s really banged up and he went through warmups and said ‘I’m ready to go,'” Krzyzewski said. “He can’t shoot really well because he can’t get any push, but he really played [E.C.] Matthews well on defense.”
Although he did not have the direct offensive impact Blue Devil fans are used to seeing, Allen was part of a rotation of guards that held Matthews—the Rams’ top offensive threat who carried them into the championship game with a big second half against No. 24 Cincinnati—to just nine points on 3-of-7 shooting.
As other members of the lineup picked up the slack scoring-wise, Krzyzewski said he was impressed by Allen’s ability to remain effective through spacing and sharing the ball. Allen also eclipsed the 1,000-point mark for his career Sunday.
“I think the fact that Grayson can’t go as hard—that was the best he passed, ever. And so it got everybody going,” he said. “Some of the stuff these kids do offensively—we don’t call it, they just do it. And they’re getting real comfortable. It’s really neat basketball. I love watching them play, especially when we hit shots.”
As long as its three top freshmen remain on the sideline, Duke will need Allen to return to form as a go-to scorer to remain among the nation’s elite teams. The Blue Devils’ next major challenge comes when No. 13 Michigan State visits Cameron Indoor Stadium Nov. 29 as part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.
But Krzyzewski thinks being limited as a scorer will have benefits for Allen’s overall game down the road—and he thinks Allen is beginning to see that, too.
“He even mentioned to [assistant coach] Jon Scheyer, he said, ‘You know, Coach, it’s amazing what you see when you can’t shoot,’” Krzyzewski said. “When he shoots, he’s only thinking about the buckets, so I know Luke [Kennard] and Amile [Jefferson] probably want him to be a little bit injured all the time.”
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.