Grayson Allen of Duke has been channeling his inner Christian Laettner by tripping opposing players on the court. He is certainly a solid player who has NBA aspirations but he will first have to overcome his anger management issues.  After his 3rd tripping move in the last year, Coach K today announced an indefinite suspension.  To be honest, despite calls for the suspension from many writers and commentators, I was surprised that the coach actually pulled the trigger.  That’s not been his MO over the years.  He, of course, runs a stellar program but SU has never viewed him as the strict disciplinarian when it comes to these types of incidents.  Actually, no big-time college coach has that reputation.  I suppose we can hope that Allen will learn from this but it’s likely that this is a bigger personality issue with him and won’t be solved by a few games off the court.

Did you see that former NBA coach George Karl has written a tell all book?  I guess that must mean he no longer wants to coach an NBA team.  A few tidbits from espn.com:

“Carmelo was a true conundrum for me in the six years I had him,” Karl wrote in “Furious George,” according to an advance copy obtained by the New York Post. “He was the best offensive player I ever coached. He was also a user of people, addicted to the spotlight and very unhappy when he had to share it.

“He really lit my fuse with his low demand of himself on defense. He had no commitment to the hard, dirty work of stopping the other guy.”  Karl coached Anthony from January 2005 to February 2011, when Anthony had his demand for a trade fulfilled and joined the Knicks. Karl said the trade was “a sweet release for the coach and the team, like popping a blister.” 

The coach was also critical of J.R. Smith and Kenyon Martin, comparing those two, along with Anthony, to “the spoiled brats you see in junior golf and junior tennis.”

Karl wrote that Smith, who is now with the Cavaliers, had “a huge sense of entitlement, a distracting posse, his eye always on the next contract and some really unbelievable shot selection.”

SU says: “Shocking!  Who would have suspected these things?”  While much of this was probably true about the younger Carmelo, I have seen enough behavior change this year to think he is mellowing as he sees the finish line of his career.  Not every game, mind you, but here and there.  And I have always liked JR Smith and Kenyon Martin.  SU says that if you are an effective and winning NBA coach, you get guys like this to play for you and play hard.  Karl has a good career record and his Denver roster was very, very good.  He is also headstrong which no doubt didn’t help him with the star players.

Finally, SU caught some of the UConn women’s game last night against Nebraska.  They continue to amaze and impress with how hard they play for 40 minutes with what is basically a 7-player roster.  They are still the most enjoyable game to watch on tv.