Well, you can't say Duke men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski was fibbing when he said Grayson Allen would be suspended indefinitely following his third tripping incident.
"Indefinitely" could mean weeks, even months. In this case, it didn't. It could also mean one game, which, in this case, it did.
Allen's penance for tripping an Elon player, and throwing a fit on the bench after being whistled for a technical foul during a December win, amounted to one game on the sideline before returning to the starting lineup this past week. Sure, Allen was stripped of his team captaincy and there were public rebukes to go along with the suspension, but sitting out games is the punishment that really stings.
For many, that component of the punishment was not nearly enough.
Krzyzewski, one of, if not the best basketball coach on the planet, decided it was. And it's his team, his call and his burden to bear.
He just shouldn't get too steamed at the howling that Allen got off easy.
The coach told ESPN's Jay Bilas that there were parts of Allen's punishment that weren't made public. And that's nothing new in college athletics. Players get disciplined all the time behind the scenes. But that's just it. It was done behind the scenes. What was public, the suspension, made it look like a slap on the wrist.
It's that word, "indefinite," that really is the issue. Most of the time, when that word is used, it means something pretty substantial. A couple of years back, then-Marshall men's basketball coach Tom Herrion pulled all the beat writers together and announced that leading scorer Elijah Pittman had been suspended indefinitely for team-rule violations.
Pittman never played another game in a Marshall uniform. The last straw that led to that suspension never was made public.
Allen's transgression was broadcast for all to see. And it wasn't the first time, or even the second, that he did it. It was the third in two seasons. And his punishment lasted all of 40 game minutes.
It's not a good look. Actually, there are a couple of bad looks here.
Allen's one-game suspension was a Duke loss to Virginia Tech, just the Blue Devils' second loss of the season and first to an unranked foe. So Krzyzewski takes a hard stance after the third tripping incident and uses a word like "indefinite," which usually means a lengthy punishment. Then Duke loses a game and, all of a sudden, Allen learns his lesson?
Even if that's not the real reason the suspension was lifted, it allows people to question whether it was.
Krzyzewski offered a few reasons why Allen came back so soon. The coach was headed for back surgery that would keep him on the shelf for a while. He was inserting Harry Giles into the starting lineup and wanted a veteran like Allen out there to help him.
And some pundits believe Krzyzewski made the decision so Jeff Capel, who will oversee the team in Krzyzewski's absence, wouldn't have to keep getting asked about it. (Then again, Capel has been a head coach at both Virginia Commonwealth and Oklahoma. He should be able to handle a few tough questions.)
If there is anyone who can shoulder the criticism, it's Krzyzewski. He's a hall-of-famer who has built up the equity over four decades of coaching, three Olympic gold medals and five NCAA titles. He obviously knows what he's doing.
In the end, though, there's only one way that will prove Krzyzewski's handling of Allen's punishment was correct - Allen needs to keep his feet to himself from now on. If he trips someone for the fourth time, or does anything like that again, it will be obvious the junior either didn't learn his lesson or refuses to learn.
And if that happens, Allen might have to learn a whole new meaning of the word "indefinite."
Contact Derek Redd at 304-348-1712 or derek.redd@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @derekredd.