Nicole Auerbach

USA TODAY Sports

Duke guard Grayson Allen deliberately tripped an opponent — for the third time this calendar year.

And there’s no excuse for it.

You can watch the clip of the latest example, of him Wednesday night against Elon: While Allen is contorting his body and falling out of bounds, he sticks out his right leg, hooking Elon’s Steven Santa Ana.

Allen received a technical foul for the move, and then threw a tantrum on the sideline, requiring Duke assistant coach Jon Scheyer to try to calm him down — another cringe-worthy viral moment for both Duke and Atlantic Coast Conference officials.

Enough is enough. It’s time for a serious penalty.

Last season, after the most polarizing player in college basketball tripped players twice in less than two weeks — in games against Louisville and Florida State — the ACC announced a public reprimand. It’s now time for the league office to consider at least a one-game suspension.

Suspending a player for violating the ACC’s sportsmanship policy is rare, but not unprecedented. In 2002, the league suspended North Carolina State forward Julius Hodge for one game after he delivered a forearm to the back of a Maryland player's head, an action the ACC characterized as deliberate and blatant.

More recently, other conferences have implemented similar punishment for player misbehavior. Last season, the Pac-12 suspended Oregon State forward Jarmal Reid four games after he tripped a referee. One week later, the Mountain West suspended Wyoming guard Josh Adams one game after what the league termed accumulated violations of sportsmanship; he’d received three technical fouls at that point in the season.

It’s clear, from reading the ACC’s sportsmanship policy, that the league has the jurisdiction to punish Allen.

Duke's Grayson Allen tripped an Elon player, then threw a furious tantrum on the bench

Here’s the policy, pulled from UNC’s athletic website:

Acts violating coach and player decorum rules shall include, but not be limited to, the following and may subject violators to reprimand or suspension from additional contests as the commissioner deems appropriate (Note: Persons, for the purposes of this section, means coaches, squad members, team attendants, band members, cheerleaders, or mascots): · Any person who strikes or physically abuses an official, opposing coach, player or spectator; · Any person who intentionally incites participants or spectators to violent or abusive action; · Any person who uses profanity, vulgarity, taunts, ridicules or makes obscene gestures; · Any person who publicly criticizes any game official, conference personnel, a member institution, or institutional personnel; · Any person who engages in negative recruiting by making statements which are unduly derogatory of another institution or its personnel to a prospective student-athlete, parents, high school coach, or other person interested in the prospective student-athlete; · Any person who enters the competing area for an unsportsmanlike purpose; · Any other act of unsportsmanlike conduct not specifically prescribed.

Not only could the ACC punish Allen under the first point — striking an opposing player — it could also easily justify multiple incidents of tripping opponents as unsportsmanlike conduct not specifically outlined.

It’s a shame that Allen’s dirty tactics overshadow what is already a phenomenal college career at Duke. But unless he’s punished severely for his repeated ridiculous behavior, that's what will continue to happen.

It’s unclear if Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski wants to or will be the one to punish his star junior; Allen didn’t start the second half Wednesday night, but he did return to the game. So if Coach K won’t do it, it’s time for the ACC to step in.

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