The Villain - The Grayson Allen Story
Grayson Allen is the newest member of the impressive group of hated Duke players. The 21 year old played high school basketball in Florida and became a Mcdonald's All American. Proving how athletic he is, Allen won the Slam Dunk Contest. He had little impact through most of his freshman year, which is typical of a freshman on a stacked Duke team. He only averaged 4.4 points per game during his freshman campaign. The turning point for Allen was in the National Championship Game, where he scored 16 points including 8 straight. He was the reason they got back in the groove and helped push the team to victory. Coming into his second season, Allen was touted by many as being the top player to make a huge leap from freshman to sophomore year. The sophomores campaign was no disappointment, averaging 21 points per game and playing as the star of the team. He came into the junior season as a preseason All-American, but has had an up and down year with injuries. On top of the injuries came the tripping, the meltdown, and the suspension.
The reality is no one turns into a villain without becoming a villain. Allen started the villainous change on February 8, 2016 when he tripped a Louisville player. The world was asking is he the next hated Duke player. In his second game against Louisville Allen received a technical and ejection. On February 25, 2016, Grayson had once again another incident of tripping against a Florida State University player. Allen had a ton of explaining to do leading into is junior campaign. He sit down with the media explaining his actions, apologizing and keeping the past in the past. On December 21, 2016, Grayson made one to many mistakes tripping a Elon player and having an emotional outburst. With the world fed up with his antics, Coach K suspended him for an indefinite amount of time. In the end it was one game, but he got his captaincy stripped to go along with that. What people don't see on the outside is how much they worked with him leading up to him coming back. If you know Coach K, he taught the kid lessons and made him a better person with in that time. It is now up to the young man to take the lessons and learn from his mistakes. Allen has already cemented himself on the list of hated Duke players. The reality is something about Duke and certain Duke players rub opposing fans the wrong way. Everyone knows Allen brought this on himself, but now that the microscope is on him. Will he learn from past mistakes?
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