Duke Loses, Reminds Us Why They’re America’s Most Hated
When he’s not tripping opponents, Grayson Allen is shunning them after losses.
Allen, the latest in a long line of Duke players everyone outside of Durham hates, was understandably upset last night, after the Blue Devils were bounced from the NCAA Tournament by the Oregon Ducks in the Sweet 16. If it was his final game for Coach K, it was a pretty lousy one: Allen scored 15 points on 4-of-13 shooting, and Oregon handled the defending champs with relative ease.
And all of that probably played a role in him ignoring Oregon star Dillon Brooks at the end of the game.
Grayson Allen was not having it pic.twitter.com/vAOf4a2aeI
— Andrew Joseph (@AndyJ0seph) March 25, 2016
While it’s far from the biggest scandal in sports – we probably wouldn’t even be talking about it if Allen didn’t have a history of being petty – the snub came seconds after Brooks had just gone into Stephen Curry mode by draining a deep 3-pointer when Oregon already had the game in the bag. That, coupled with some apparent trash talk during the game, was too much for Mike Krzyzewski, who supposedly gave Brooks a lecture on sportsmanship following the game.
“[Krzyzewski] just told me that I’m too good of a player to be showing off at the end,” Brooks said. “And you know, he’s right. I gotta respect Duke. I’ve gotta respect them. And you’ve gotta learn from these things. He’s one of the greatest coaches.”
To nobody’s surprise, Coach K denied the encounter (according to him, he just congratulated Brooks and that was that) but would you be surprised if he actually gave Brooks a piece of his mind? Nah, didn’t think so.
That’s the beauty of March Madness: Even when the Sweet 16 games stink, the schadenfreude is spectacular.