In Coach K's final game before he is to undergo back surgery, the Duke head coach lifted Grayson Allen's suspension after serving just one game. Duke, you'll remember, had suspended Allen for an indefinite period of time after his latest tripping incident against Elon.
The decision to let him return so early was met with mixed results.
Our Matt Norlander says one game was not enough, and that Coach K likely brought back Allen early to clear interim coach Jeff Capel of the decision as K heads in for surgery.
Following the game, both Allen and Mike Krzyzewski discussed the decision in detail and how each approached it.
"I think it's appropriate, and I think the things that we've done are appropriate," Krzyzewski told ESPN's Jay Bilas in an interview on Sportscenter that aired on Wednesday night. "There are things that you see or the public see, and there are things that you all don't see and shouldn't see or shouldn't be talked about, and they're called teachings. You don't need to teach out in the public all the time.
"What he did was wrong. He was punished for it. I think it's time to move on, and I think the new role he has will be a good one for him."
Not only did Duke bring Allen back from suspension, but they also inserted Harry Giles into the starting lineup for the first time. Giles,who had only played in three games before Wednesday, had been slowly ramping up his minutes on the floor after recovering from an injury suffered in the preseason. The move to put him in the starting 5 was one that Coach K said played a part in his decision to bring Allen back, so that the two could be together.
"It's one of the reasons I wanted to postpone my surgery for a few days, just to move to this point where we could get this moving the right way, where Grayson would be a point; Frank also," Krzyzewski said after beating Georgia Tech via Duke beat writer Stephen Schramm. "The two of them could be together. Get Harry (Giles) in the starting lineup, try to get seven or eight guys in the rotation, that they know seven or eight of them feel like starters. It's stuff we would have done in our first or second exhibition games if we had them (healthy)."
As for Allen, he was stripped of his captaincy after the incident, and says he had no real idea how long his suspension might last.
"I had no idea (how long the suspension would be)," Allen told the News and Observer. "I was home over break, and I knew coming back I was going to have to work my way back and earn it and be under control and accept whatever discipline came by way from our coaching staff. When I was back on the court, I just put everything in the past."
In his first game back from suspension, Allen scored 15 points and added 7 assists in a 53-point blowout of Georgia Tech.
