Ugly play during Duke basketball game at Clemson results in ejection
Duke’s final trip to Clemson in coach Mike Krzyzewski’s career took a nasty turn late in the first half on Thursday night.
Clemson senior guard David Collins was ejected after he undercut Duke junior forward Wendell Moore as Moore dunked on a breakaway drive with 3:01 to play before halftime in a game Duke won 82-64 at Littlejohn Coliseum.
“He’s parallel to the ground, eight feet up in the air,” Krzyzewski said. “That was one of the most dangerous plays I’ve ever seen. I’m not knocking Collins. Don’t get me wrong. But just seeing a play like that is scary.”
Moore crashed the ground hard, causing Krzyzewski to storm off the Duke bench in anger and onto the court. The play happened at the end of the court nearest the Clemson bench.
Officials separated the players and immediately signaled an intentional foul on Collins. Moore got to his feet quickly.
The 74-year-old Krzyzewski, who is retiring after this season, was all the way down by the Clemson bench yelling in disapproval.
After the officials reviewed the play using video replay, Collins was ejected and a Flagrant 2 foul was assessed.
Moore had stolen the ball from Collins with 3:07 to play, initiating the sequence. Clemson coach Brad Brownell said Collins let his competitive emotions get the better of him.
“He’s a very competitive player,” Brownell said, “and I think he thought he got fouled on the on the play down there. And so he’s fighting like crazy to get back into play, and then he makes the wrong play.”
Before Collins left the court after being ejected, Brownell brought his player down to the Duke bench area, where they both apologized to Krzyzewski and the Blue Devils. Collins could be seen pointing to his chest, taking blame for the play.
“We have a lot of respect for Coach K and Duke and their program,” Brownell said. “The last thing we’re trying to do is hurt anybody. It’s just the right thing to do was to take them over there and make sure, since he’s leaving the court, that he has to stand up and apologize himself. So that’s why we did it.”
Krzyzewski embraced both and then Collins left the court.
“Brad’s an old school, damn good coach,” Krzyzewski said. “And good guy. He’s good people. And these kids are good people. So we didn’t want that to escalate. So the fact that he brought him and we did some interaction, I think that was that was really good. And you put it behind you.”
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This story was originally published February 10, 2022 at 9:15 PM.