Last Monday night, NC State was partying like it was 1995. This was the last time the Wolfpack beat the Blue Devils at Cameron Indoor. To give that some perspective, Dennis Smith wasn’t even born yet. Coincidently, this was also the last time Coach K was out with a back injury.
Let’s take a look at Duke basketball preseason: with the number one recruiting class, and returnees such as Amile Jefferson, Grayson Allen, and Luke Kennard, Duke’s preseason rooster was monstrous and had everyone inside and outside the ACC trembling. Las Vegas had the preseason number one team set to win it all. However, it looks like that bet may not pay out big.
Injury plagued the team early. Three highly raved freshmen on the roster, Jayson Tatum, Marques Bolden, and Harry Giles were subject to early injuries, resulting in limited minutes played. The team is still awaiting Harry Giles’ big debut when he finally demonstrates why he’s a five-star recruit, but considering how long he’s been injuried, we may be waiting until he makes it big in the NBA.
Grayson Allen “trips” again. Allen has been approaching Christian Laettner hate-status since last year when he came under fire for two separate incidents in which he tripped an opposing team’s player. Though he was given a flagrent-1 foul against Louisville, no further action was taken. Fast-forward to this year: Duke vs. Elon. Allen was defending Elon guard Steven Santa Ana when Santa Ana caught Allen’s hip, knocking him slightly off-balance. Allen then clearly swung his leg toward the back of Santa Ana’s knee. Coach K took Allen off the court, and an infuriated Allen was seen on the bench in a fit of rage.
There was outcry for Coach K to finally do something about Allen’s antics and apparent anger issues. Allen was stripped from his team captain title and was sentenced to sit out for an “indefinite” period of time. That period of time equaled one game, which created a slew of memes at the ridiculousness.
Since then, he’s become public enemy number one and the star of everyone’s new favorite drama: “What Will Grayson Allen Do Next?” Clips emerge on social media game after game of incidences in which people think Allen was, well, being Grayson Allen again. Teams have also had their tussles with Allen, one Louisville player clearly slapping Allen in the face during a loose ball.
Despite the outcry for disciplinary action, the NCAA remains uninvolved. Allen now has to endure the ridicule, and try to keep his feet to himself. It’s apparent it’s been a distraction to his game as well as the team’s. ESPN college basketball analyst Seth Greenberg took to Twitter to go as far as saying the Duke guard shouldn’t finish out the season @SethOnHoops: “I seriously feel it is not in Allen’s best interest to play the remainder of the season. He surely is not himself and seems distracted!” Duke fans certainty don’t want yet another key player sitting on their bench.
After Grayson’s tripped incident vs. Elon, Kennard spoke out to a reporter, stating that: “Every guy on our team, inside, they have individual goals, and that’s a great thing to have, but sometimes those individual goals may tend to sneak up and kind of take over what it’s really all about, and that’s about winning as a group.” This had people wondering what was going on with the team behind closed doors. With a group full of all-stars, and first round draft picks, analysts said form day one Duke’s biggest problem would be whether the team would mesh together.
Déjá vu? In 1995 Coach K also underwent back surgery during the season and left one of his assistants to take over. Now it’s happening again in 2017. With their head coach gone, the team has lost their leader. Coach Jeff Capel has attempted to keep the distraction away from the team and their success, but with more losses pouring in, it’s fair to ask if the absence of Coach K has damaged the team.
The injury curse keeps hitting the team hard this year. Amile Jefferson injured his foot during the Boston College game, pushing him to sit out during the loss against Florida State. Next on the injury list: Chase Jeter. The sophomore sat out during the NC State loss after having a procedure to treat a herniated disk.
The hits just keep on coming. After last Monday night’s game, Coach K held a meeting in which he prohibited the team from using the locker room or wearing anything with the Duke logo. So did the team get to celebrate in their locker room after the Wake win or nah? Coach K is trying to light a fire into his team, and with the win over Wake, he may have sparked a fire.
March is only month that matters, right? March is when the ACC Tournament is, and the NCAA Tournament. Duke has been holding onto the hope that the curse will be lifted by March, and they can prevail in the tournament. They’re living on the philosophy that it doesn’t matter what you do outside the tournament, but what you do at the big dance. They’re hoping that with Coach K’s expected return in March, and an injury free team, they’ll put everything together and be the monster pre-season team they were supposed to be.
Duke’s pretournament record may not matter much in terms of tournament performance, but it certainty doesn’t make the road any easier for them. Duke was looking to be a number one seed in the tournament, but are now dropping dangerously lower and lower. The lower the seed, the harder the climb to the top. Instead of facing cupcake teams on the ride to the title, Duke will now be facing tougher competition.
We’ll see if the Blue Devils can put it all together by the time March rolls around. However, with four ACC loses thus far, they might want to accept the possibility that the cavalry may never come.
Sources:
http://www.foxsports.com/college-basketball/story/duke-nc-state-final-sc…
http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-basketball/news/grayson-allen-duke-bask…
http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-basketball/news/grayson-allen-suspended…
http://www.si.com/college-basketball/2017/01/02/mike-krzyzewski-back-inj…
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/18410491/before-d…
http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/5110931af23590163dfb729fe8d99d901fbccfe9…