From a competitive standpoint, I can't stand the guy. His team gets all the calls, the most outrageous one being the Winston charge no-call from the last NC - that was a huge, very obvious no-call. Don't like the whole whiny, preppy white guy theme either.
That written, the guy is 100% class. He came out and acknowledged that he gave the kid a comment, that he was wrong to do so, and that he's sorry that he took away from the other team's revelry and attention. One of the best apologies that I have seen. Much better than the, "I'm sorry if my words were misunderstood/caused pain" garbage that passes for apology nowadays. Guy manned up and owned it. I'm okay if he didn't say, "sorry I lied." Not necessary, and, to be fair, he was reacting to an interview question after a tough loss.
In our world, overrun with victims and the misunderstood, people should take notes.
Ugh, how is it class to only when you are cornered by audio being released and everyone paying attention to the story, own up and be honest about what happened?
It would have been classy if he had sat Grayson Allen for a game after his second egregious tripping incident mid-season, he then would have been able to criticize another team's sportsmanship after a loss
It would have been classy if he hadn't said anything negative to the kid after losing the game
It would have been classy if he had owned up to exactly what he said when confronted about it in the post-game interview.
Coach K showed zero class in this incident. I feel like people sometimes concentrate on the wrong layers of this story though. I don't think K necessarily took issue with him shooting the 3, more with the taunting after it.
I agree it isn't great sportsmanship, however, you play for Oregon and even though you are the 1 seed playing the 4... it's Duke. Duke is consistently considered the Alpha of college hoops, the true ideal program that is perfect and never wrong or untalented. Coach K loves this, clearly, and he repeatedly uses it as a crutch to make baseless arguments after games. He claimed that the only reason anyone cared about Grayson tripping people was that he played for Duke. If someone tripped Grayson like he trips people, K would probably do a press tour to smear the kid and the team for being such awful sportsmen and demand the NCAA suspend him for a game or two. If you are any team that doesn't have tons of tournament history, if you beat Duke in the tourney you are going to celebrate, so K should understand that these are kids, and kids don't keep their emotions in check as well as most adults.
So to me K had no grounds to criticize anyone's sportsmanship since he refused to even acknowledge there was anything wrong with Grayson's play. Twice in the Yale game he tripped the same guy, so he can swallow any thoughts he has about sportsmanship and how kids should play. Lying about it afterwards? doubling down on being an inconsistent scumbag
