Duke Basketball

While playing at Duke, Memphis Grizzlies guard Grayson Allen was an All-American, an All-ACC selection, an NCAA champion and a serial tripper. 

In an appearance on JJ Redick's Old Man and the Three podcast, Allen opened up about the incidents that led to criticism from his conference and a suspension from his team:

"Obviously if I could go back in time, I wouldn't trip anybody. That's clear. But I don't think it bothers me. It doesn't bother me. Either I've gotten so used to it and I realize it was part of my journey where I had to f--k up. I had to make some mistakes to learn."

As a sophomore, Allen made headlines after he tripped Louisville's Ray Spalding and was handed a flagrant foul. He tripped a Florida State player weeks later, and the ACC did not suspend him after an investigation into the issue.

The next season, despite saying he was ready to "play the game the right way" (h/t ESPN), Allen was suspended indefinitely and lost his captain status after he tripped an Elon player. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski allowed him to return to the court after one game, though as Allen explained to Redick, the suspension spanned over winter break.

Allen noted that even with the team's success on the court, the focus was consistently on the dirty plays: 

"I can laugh about it now, but at the time I'm 20 years old waking up and seeing this on ESPN. This is terrible. I can't get outside myself when I'm playing. I'm constantly thinking about what I'm doing on the court because it feels like even if we have Jayson Tatum and Luke Kennard on our team scoring 20 points, that's the story."

Allen has not been a similar spectacle during his two seasons as a pro, averaging just 1.3 personal fouls per game. 

Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski is leading a push for an NCAA tournament that will feature every Division I men's basketball team.    

Per Jeff Goodman of Stadium, Krzyzewski and the ACC coaches will propose an "all-inclusive" 2021 NCAA tournament. 

Goodman noted that every ACC head coach unanimously voted for the proposal on a Wednesday conference call. 

He also gave more details about how many schools would be eligible for the proposal:

"This is not a regular season," Krzyzewski said in a statement, via Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated. "It is clearly an irregular season that will require something different. Our sport needs to be agile and creative."

After Goodman's report, numerous ACC coaches and programs tweeted in support of the proposal:

The 2020-21 college basketball season was originally scheduled to start in November, but it's unclear if the NCAA will allow that to happen because of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Dan Gavitt, NCAA senior vice president of basketball, issued a statement last month that said there will likely be an official announcement by mid-September:

"We have learned a great deal over the course of the summer, and with health and safety being our priority, we have developed and studied contingency plans for alternatives to the scheduled Nov. 10 start date.

"In the coming weeks, the NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Basketball Oversight Committees will take the lead with me in a collaborative process of finalizing any recommendations for consideration by the NCAA Division I Council for the start of the college basketball season. By mid-September, we will provide direction about whether the season and practice start on time or a short-term delay is necessitated by the ongoing pandemic."

NCAA President Mark Emmert has said using bubble sites to host championship events could be an option but expressed concern about having a large number of teams in a single venue. 

"Starting with 64 teams is tough. Thirty-two, OK, maybe that's a manageable number. Sixteen, certainly manageable. But you've got to figure out those logistics," Emmert told NCAA.com (via ESPN's Jeff Borzello). "There's doubtlessly ways to make that work."

The NCAA canceled the 2020 men's and women's basketball tournaments in March because of the pandemic. The Big Ten and Pac-12 have postponed fall sports, with the hope of being able to reschedule them at the start of 2021. 

Krzyzewski has been outspoken about the potential financial ramifications if the NCAA men's basketball tournament has to be canceled again. 

"We're the thing that the NCAA is most concerned about because men's college basketball and the tournament pays for something like ... it produces 98 percent or more of the money for the NCAA," the Blue Devils coach said Aug. 17 on ESPN Radio's of Keyshawn, JWIll & Zubin show (h/t ESPN's Myron Medcalf). 

A traditional NCAA men's tournament includes 68 teams made up of 32 conference tournament champions and 36 at-large bids. 

Highly touted power forward Paolo Banchero committed to the Duke Blue Devils on Thursday.

Banchero is the No. 1 power forward and No. 3 player overall in the 2021 recruiting class, per 247Sports' composite rankings. He chose Duke over fellow finalists Arizona, Gonzaga, Tennessee and Washington.

The Seattle native won the Gatorade Washington Boys Basketball Player of the Year award in March after averaging 22.6 points, 11.0 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game for O'Dea High School.

O'Dea was the 3A state champion in 2018-19 and fell short of its repeat bid in the title game, losing to Garfield High School. Banchero had 15 points on 5-of-13 shooting in the 69-44 loss but was still a first-team finisher for the 3A all-tournament team.

He put on a show in the semifinals, nearly dropping a triple-double:

Aaron Gray, a two-time first-team All-Big East center at Pittsburgh, worked with Banchero at USA Basketball's junior national team minicamp in July 2019.

Gray called him a "coach's dream" in an interview with CBSSports.com's Gary Parrish:

"His willingness to want to improve, when he's already at such a high-level, is impressive to a guy like me. He's got a cool and calm demeanor. But when he brings out that aggressive side, that mean side, man, the sky's the limit. His skillset is great. He's a great worker. So there really isn't anything negative I can say about him."

After scouting Banchero in March 2019, 247Sports' Josh Gerson compared him to Charlotte Hornets forward P.J. Washington. 

In two years at Kentucky, Washington averaged 12.9 points, 6.6 rebounds and 1.0 block. He added a three-pointer to his repertoire as a sophomore, hitting 42.3 percent of his shots from beyond the arc.

Banchero's athleticism immediately jumps out. He's already throwing down highlight-reel dunks and looking like a man among boys.

His opponents won't be so physically overmatched in college, but his strength and explosion will help him make an immediate impact on the glass and as an inside scorer.

Banchero will be even more difficult to stop if he becomes a consistent threat from long range.

Duke head basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski stressed the importance of playing the 2021 NCAA men's basketball tournament after the marquee event was canceled this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Coach K explained the financial importance of March Madness for college athletics during an appearance Tuesday on ESPN Radio's Keyshawn, JWIll & Zubin.

"We're the thing that the NCAA is most concerned about because men's college basketball and the tournament pays for something like ... it produces 98 percent or more of the money for the NCAA," he said. "We need to have the tournament. We can't have it where two years in a row you don't have the NCAA tournament."

Krzyzewski said the NCAA should be extremely flexible with its scheduling for the college basketball season to ensure the tournament is contested, even if it doesn't happen in March:

"I think that's where you should start. Make sure you have the tournament. It doesn't make any difference when it is. Because we don't even know when the NBA season is going to be next year. And we should look at them to see how they navigate the waters going forward. They've navigated them really well with the bubble."

The Basketball Hall of Fame coach, who's guided the Blue Devils to five national championships, previously urged the NCAA to begin exploring "contingency plans" in July on SiriusXM Radio:

In March, Andrew Lisa of Yahoo Finance reported the men's NCAA tournament generates around 75 percent of the governing body's yearly revenue thanks in large part to its $933 million in advertising revenue.

NCAA senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt said Friday they've discussed the potential for using a bubble similar to those of the NBA and NHL to complete the tournament.

"It's something we've been talking about and studying for some time, since the NBA shared their plan," Gavitt told ESPN's Myron Medcalf. "We've had a chance to see its execution. We know that it works."

The national championship in men's basketball had been awarded every year via the NCAA tournament since 1939 before this year's cancellation.

Duke University's federal tax return shows that men's basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski earned over $7 million in total compensation for the 2018 calendar year, per Steve Berkowitz of USA Today.

That figure includes $1.2 million in deferred pay from previous Duke tax returns, meaning Krzyzewski earned $5.8 million in net pay for 2018.  

His base pay approached $3.1 million, per Berkowitz, with $2.985 million in bonus pay. Krzyzewski earned that same bonus in 2017.

USA Today obtained Duke's tax returns upon request. The school is a private institution and therefore under no obligation to make its employment contracts public.

Berkowitz speculated that Kryzyzewki's pay would have placed him second in college hoops, behind only Kentucky's John Calipari, who earned $7.45 million in 2018.

Clemson football head coach Dabo Swinney is the highest-paid coach in collegiate athletics. He earned $9.255 million from the Tigers in 2019, per USA Today. Swinney is amid a 10-year, $93 million deal, per Weston Blasi of Market Watch.

The Blue Devils reached the Elite Eight of the men's NCAA tournament during the 2017-18 season but fell in overtime to Kansas, who lost to eventual national champion Villanova in the Final Four.

Krzyzewski has a lifetime 1,157-350 record with Army and Duke. He's led the Blue Devils to 12 Final Fours and five national titles. The 73-year-old is also a three-time Naismith College Basketball Coach of the Year.

Zion Williamson and his stepfather are alleged to have accepted $400,000 from an agency for exclusive marketing rights while Williamson was attending Duke University in October 2018. 

According to Daniel Wallach of The Athletic, Prime Sports Marketing and Gina Ford are the defendants in a lawsuit filed by Williamson in North Carolina and introduced "newly discovered evidence" related to the alleged October 2018 payment:

Wallach added that witness Donald Kreiss contacted Ford and provided a copy of a marketing agreement between Williamson and Maximum Management Group, which is based in Canada.

Wallach also passed along a statement from Williamson's lawyer, Jeffrey S. Klein: 

According to Wallach (h/t David Cobb and Kyle Boone of CBS Sports), Zion's lawsuit against Prime Sports Marketing aims to nullify his agreement with the firm under a North Carolina law that protects student-athletes from non-certified agents.

Williamson signed with Prime Sports Marketing after being selected No. 1 overall by the New Orleans Pelicans in the 2019 NBA draft, but he switched to Creative Artists Agency a few weeks later.

Prime Sports Marketing filed a lawsuit against Williamson in Florida seeking compensation for endorsement opportunities it had lined up for Zion before he made the jump to CAA.

Ford and Prime Sports Marketing are arguing Williamson accepted impermissible benefits while at Duke. If that is proven, Zion may be ruled ineligible retroactively, which would make it difficult for him to win his case under the North Carolina law protecting student-athletes.

Williamson spent one season at Duke and established himself as one of the most explosive and exciting players in college basketball history.

In 33 games with the Blue Devils during the 2018-19 season, Zion averaged 22.6 points, 8.9 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 2.1 steals and 1.8 blocks per game. He was named the consensus National College Player of the Year.

The 20-year-old phenom missed the start of his rookie season with the Pels due to a knee injury before making his debut in January. In 19 games prior to the suspension of the 2019-20 season due to the coronavirus pandemic, Zion averaged 23.6 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.2 assists.

Williamson figures to be a key figure for the Pelicans when the season resumes in Orlando, Florida, later this month.

The Pelicans are 10th in the Western Conference and trail the eighth-place Memphis Grizzlies by 3.5 games, but they will have a chance to play their way into the postseason.

Joanne P. McCallie announced Thursday that she is stepping down after 13 seasons as the head women's basketball coach at Duke.

McCallie made it official by reading a prepared statement that was tweeted out by the official Twitter account for Duke women's basketball:

The 54-year-old McCallie, who had been set to enter the final year of her contract in 2020-21, stressed the importance of clarity in her statement: "As a coach in the final year of my contract, uncertainty is natural and it takes away from confidence and fun. I'm pretty sure there's a level of uncertainty amongst the Duke family. I want to bring clarity with great pride for all."

During her 13 years at Duke, McCallie went 330-107 and took the Blue Devils to the NCAA tournament 10 times.

From 2009-10 through 2012-13, Duke won four consecutive regular-season ACC titles under McCallie and also won three ACC tournament titles during that time. The Blue Devils went to the Elite Eight in the NCAA tournament each of those years as well.

Duke was never able to advance past the Elite Eight under McCallie, and it didn't go further than the Sweet 16 in her final seven seasons as head coach.

The Blue Devils won at least 20 games in each of McCallie's first 11 seasons, but they went just 15-15 in 2018-19 and missed the tourney. Duke also went just 18-12 last season, although the NCAA tournament didn't occur because of the coronavirus pandemic.

In 2016, Duke launched an investigation into the women's basketball program after three players left the team. Duke said at the time that the investigation was done "for Duke women's basketball to get even better."

At the conclusion of the investigation, Duke expressed support for McCallie and kept her on as head coach.

Prior to joining the Blue Devils in 2007, McCallie was the head coach at Maine for eight seasons and Michigan State for seven seasons. She took Maine to the NCAA tournament six times and MSU five times. In 2005, the Spartans lost to Baylor in the National Championship Game.

Overall, McCallie owns a 646-255 record as a college head coach, which means she should have little issue finding another job if she decides to continue coaching.

Duke head men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski has spoken out in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. 

"Black Lives Matter. Say it. Can't you say it? Black Lives Matter. We should be saying it every day," Krzyzewski said in a video posted on Blue Devils social media Friday:

He added: "It's not political. This is not a political statement. It's a human rights statement. It's a fairness statement."

Protests against systemic racism and police brutality against people of color were sparked by the killing of George Floyd on May 25 and have been taking place across the United States for weeks.

Video showed former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes as Floyd said he could not breathe. Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

Duke forward Wendell Moore Jr. and his girlfriend, Marissa Moyer, organized a protest in Concord, North Carolina, earlier this month.

Moore told Scott Fowler of the Charlotte Observer he talked to Krzyzewski shortly before the protest began: "He's very supportive of what I was doing here. He said he was very proud of me, that it takes courage to come out and do this."

Krzyzewski previously issued a statement about racial injustice.

"No matter how much I love my current and former players and their families, I cannot feel the depth of what they are feeling right now. I have never experienced what it is like to be a Black man in America," he said in part, adding: "And to understand, we must listen. Listen and not judge. We need to stand up for what is right, and we must no longer tolerate racism and social injustice in our country."     

Duke athletic director Kevin White has publicly expressed his concern about the NCAA potentially allowing student-athletes to profit off their name, image and likeness. 

In a statement released Tuesday, White said he was "deeply concerned" about consequences and potential complications stemming from the implementation of NIL legislation:

White, along with North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham, cited concerns voiced by the NCAA Student-Athlete Advisory Committee in his statement, including "unfair recruiting and competitive advantages, difficulty monitoring compensation and ethics."

ESPN analyst Jay Bilas, who played for the Blue Devils from 1982-86, criticized White's statement on Twitter for being "stunning in its tone-deafness":

"It says, 'the money is ours, to pay ourselves fair market value, and should not be re-directed’ to where clear value lies. We shall call for strict equality here only, as we fail to provide equal resources to each sport or athlete.'

"Further, 'We are worried about recruiting, and know the most important key to winning and financial gain is procuring athletes. We point to a hand-picked "relative few" that parrot us, but ask you to ignore the athletes that will benefit most. It’s OUR MONEY, not theirs.'"

The NCAA Board of Governors announced last October the start of a process to adopt a policy that would allow student-athletes to profit off their name, image and likeness. 

Last month, the Associated Press reported commissioners from each of the Power Five conferences sent a letter to Congress asking them to move forward with NIL legislation that would establish national guidelines instead of relying on potentially different rules within each state.

Per the Board of Governors' announcement, the NCAA wants to have each division develop a set of rules "no later than January 2021."

Duke Blue Devils head coach Mike Krzyzewski released a statement Monday in the wake of the killing of unarmed civilian George Floyd, who died after since-fired Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for nine minutes while Floyd was being arrested.

Krzyzewski said he was emotional, angry, frustrated and that he was "disgusted and...scared." He also wondered, "When will we insist on justice and equality for everyone?"

Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The three other officers at the scene—Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas K. Lane—were also fired but are not currently facing criminal charges, though they are still under investigation.

A number of college basketball coaches around the nation have also released statements regarding Floyd and the ongoing protests:

South Carolina women's head coach Dawn Staley penned an essay for The Players' Tribune, writing that "black people are tired" of the disproportionate brutality and killings they face from police: 

"I'm watching people who are protesting and the riots that are going on. I mean, a part of me feels like I really understand why they're rioting. Then the other part thinks, 'That's our neighborhoods that are being burned down.' But I know the place it's coming from. I know the frustration. I know the deep-rooted anger that it's coming from.

"People are mad because NOTHING HAS CHANGED."

Incoming Ohio State transfer Seth Towns was detained in Columbus on Friday night while protesting, per Stephen Means of Cleveland.com, though he was not arrested and is not facing criminal charges. 

"We have to be true to who we are and our voices," Towns said during an appearance on ESPN's SportsCenter (h/t Adam Jardy of the Columbus Dispatch). "We have to use those voices to impact people, and there is a huge dilemma in this country right now that needs to be addressed and I won't shut up. I won't stop. I will continue to use my voice to speak out for the people who are unheard, and that's what I did."