Clemson men’s basketball forward David Collins has been suspended for one game by the ACC after receiving a flagrant two foul against Duke on Thursday. With the one game suspension, Collins will miss Saturday’s game against Notre Dame.
The suspension comes after Collins fouled Duke forward Wendell Moore Jr. when Moore was attempting a dunk with just over three minutes remaining in the first half.
Moore initially stripped the ball from David Collins at half court. Moore then dashed down the floor on his way to an easy fast break dunk.
As Moore elevated for the slam, Collins followed, running through Moore’s backside with a lowered shoulder. The Duke forward, with both hands on the rim, violently swung forward and crashed to the ground about three feet past the baseline.
Collins received the flagrant two foul and was ejected from the game. On his way off the floor, he ran to the Duke bench to personally apologize to Moore and Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski.
Luckily, Moore was able to walk back to the Duke bench on his own power. He re-entered the game, and made one of two technical free throws.
After the game, Krzyzewski said he was shocked by what he saw from Collins.
“That was one of the most dangerous plays I’ve ever seen,” he said. “[Moore] was parallel to the ground, eight feet up in the air.”
Collins apologized and explained his intent after the game via Instagram stories.
“I was going to try to block it from behind but I was going too fast and I couldn’t stop,” he said. “I have never been a dirty player, never will I. I wish [Moore] a healthy season and I never tried to hurt anybody.”
“I have respect towards Duke and Clemson and I apologize to everybody for a reckless play,” Collins said.
Clemson head coach Brad Brownell came to the defense of his forward.
“The ironic thing is that the same thing happened to David against North Carolina. He got fouled hard and there was a flagrant one. So he just had that happen to him,” Brownell said postgame.
“He was very emotional with it, he’s a very competitive player,” Brownell continued. “He thought he got fouled on the play [at half court] and so he’s fighting like crazy to get back in the play, but he makes the wrong play.”
Brownell added that his program has a lot of respect for Duke and the last thing his team was trying to do was hurt anybody.
Without Tyson and now Collins, Clemson will be even more short-handed versus a talented Notre Dame team on Saturday.
