The Dean Smith Rules

I remember when Coach K first started coaching in the ACC, he always made a derisive reference to the "Dean Smith Rules." He thought that the ACC deferred to Dean Smith and he got his way all of the time, every call went his way, and he was allowed to make the rules up a he went along. Now I have to invoke the Coach K rules. His latest star, Grayson Allen, was caught on video tripping a Florida State player near the end of a 80-65 Duke win and evidently Allen thought he was not getting any calls to go his way so he took matters into his own hands...or feet. This was the second time in a month a little over two weeks that he has done this. The first time occurred against Louisville and he was assessed a flagrant foul. No foul of any kind was not called on Allen against Florida State.

I watched the replay many times. Allen intentionally tripped the Florida State player. The game was decided and he had nothing to lose. It did not matter if he got kicked out of the game at that point or not. If the referees would have called another flagrant foul, Allen would have automatically been suspended the next game. That wasn't about to happen.

It will be interesting to see what the ACC's response is. They are supposedly "investigating" the incident and will watch video of the game. The ACC will not take any action. Duke could take action of their own but Allen is Duke's Most Valuable Player. With a game at Pittsburgh coming up, Coach K is not about to suspend Allen on his own. There are rules for Coach K.