SYRACUSE, N.Y.—Grayson Allen's five-point, two-assist, one-steal performance off the bench in eight minutes was already considered one of the freshman's best games when players and media left the court following Duke's 80-72 win at Syracuse Saturday night.
Then in his postgame press conference, Blue Devil head coach Mike Krzyzewski revealed information that made the 6-foot-4 guard's effort even more impressive: Allen hurt himself just two days prior and was questionable in the time leading up to the game.
“Two days ago, after practice on Thursday, he did something to his knee where he couldn’t walk," Krzyzewski said. "He was on crutches and a knee brace, got medicated and had an x-ray and MRI before we left on Friday and all of a sudden he was okay. It’s kind of a crazy thing. I’m not kidding.”
Krzyzewski's account of the injury showed that he indeed was not kidding about the bizarre injury scare.
“We were all through with practice and he was just shooting on his own. He just took a step to his left, and then fell with excruciating pain in his knee," Krzyzewski said. "He had a hard time walking. There’s nothing structural. I can’t explain what the hell happened, but something in there got tweaked. I think part of it is he’s had an unbelievable week of practice and he’s such a strong jumper. [Associate head coach and former Oklahoma head coach] Jeff Capel said that Blake Griffin had the same thing for two days his freshman year.”
Allen made an immediate impact Saturday night, nailing a wing 3-pointer on his first shot attempt and also coming up with a key steal and two free throws, which came with less than a minute left and Duke trying to ice the game.
His tough performance epitomized the grittiness that has classified Duke through 25 games, as the Blue Devils have already notched road wins at Syracuse, then-No. 2 Wisconsin, then-No. 6 Louisville and then-No. 2 Virginia. Half of Duke's current group of eight scholarship players consists of freshmen.
“Our guys are not afraid," Krzyzewski said. "We weren’t losing because our guys were intimidated, we were losing because [the Orange] were so damn good. Their team probably responds better with that kind of crowd support, but as far as being intimidated—we play every game away like that, not in front of 36,000, but every game is like that. People really want to beat us badly. Four of the eight are freshmen—God bless ‘em, they want to be in tough situations and they’ve responded well.”
Despite lauding his team's toughness with only eight scholarship players, Krzyzewski did admit that when Allen's status was still uncertain and even before, his limited bench remains a major concern. Against a team with just as many depth issues thanks to injury, Duke outscored Syracuse 15-0 in bench points, but that doesn't mean the Blue Devils have solved all of their problems—especially the ones that arise when trying to practice with so few scholarship players.
"It’s unnerving with eight just because that’s the way it is," Krzyzewski said. "My former players would not believe how we practice, because we can’t practice that much."
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