The Duke Blue Devils are getting ready to play against the top-seeded Oregon Ducks Thursday night in the Sweet 16. This is a Duke team that has more flaws than the typical Duke team, and because of that, not many people expected them to even make it this far.
It is hard to underestimate this Duke team, though, because they have two star players in Brandon Ingram and Grayson Allen. Allen has been vilified throughout this season because of a couple of instances in which he tripped opposing players. Hate towards a white player on Duke is nothing new, but one of the players who got it the worst, Christian Laettner, commented on the hate towards the current Duke star.
"I was like, 'Ah, poor Grayson. I hope they don't do to him what they did to me,'" Laettner said. "It's not nice, it's not fun and it's a little unfair. He's got to see that, 'Hey, Laettner made a mistake and it's haunted him for 25 years, and I would never make that mistake, so I'll never do that.'"
Laettner is a legitimate college basketball legend from his time at Duke, but even though he won back-to-back national championships in 1991 and 1992, one of his more famous moments was stomping a Kentucky player in the 1992 tournament. Laettner is speaking from experience in this case, and he wants Allen to learn from the mistakes that he made back when he was playing.
Of course from Allen's standpoint, there was always a great chance that non-Duke fans would hate him because he is a really good player. Look at J.J. Redick when he was at Duke. He didn't do anything wrong to earn the hate; he was just really good and went to one of the premiere schools in the nation.
After the second tripping incident involving Allen this year, the ACC took a look but decided not to suspend him without giving much of a reason. It is a shame that this is a big topic of conversation surrounding the sophomore because he is actually one of the best players in the entire nation. Then again, Allen did bring this upon himself with his actions on the floor. The good thing for Allen is that he has Laettner on his side, who has not only been through this, but also learned a lot from his mistakes.
To Allen's credit, he has clearly not let any of this off-the-court stuff affect him, as he has been essential to Duke's run to the Sweet 16. In the two wins, he has averaged 26 points, six rebounds and three assists, and he will be on display again Thursday night as Duke looks to punch their ticket to the Elite Eight.
