Duke Basketball: Trevon Duval’s tweets are slap to the face of Coach K

One of the greatest disappointments in the history of the Duke basketball program is seemingly trying to single-handedly destroy the Blue Devils’ future recruiting efforts by continuing to use his Twitter account to bash his time in Durham.

Trevon Duval is at it again — he went to Twitter on Sunday to throw smack at some unnamed coaches — and is a perfect example of the danger the Duke basketball coaches are facing by continuing to recruit one-and-done players who often leave without fully embracing the fact that they are Blue Devils for life.

First, if he hasn’t already destroyed it himself, somebody ought to rip up Duval’s Duke card. He is no longer a Blue Devil in my eyes.

No, Duval is currently just a hater.

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His career is not on the trajectory he expected, and as is the case with many who fall short of their own expectations — myself included, as you can see by reading my bio — he is blaming others for his shortcomings.

Nobody forced him to spend his one year in college playing for Mike Krzyzewski. If last season’s point guard had bothered to do his research before committing to Duke, he would have known that Coach K has a structure in place. It is a structure that has been fortified by 38 years of proven results at Duke, including five national titles and the most wins by any college basketball coach in history.

Apparently, though, Duval now has an issue with how the coaching staff restricted his game and ruined his confidence — although, for some reason, he won’t come out and name names. On Sunday, above a retweet of a video that includes an explanation by former NBA player Gilbert Arenas as to how a coach can “take away confidence from a player” and make him question his own talent, Duval wrote the following response:

"“Man I felt this right here.” (At the end of his message, he included an emoji of a hand covering a mouth.)"

This is not the first time Duval has tweeted comments that are obvious references to the Duke coaching staff. And if his prior behavior on social media is any indication, we should expect him to write another opinion about the Duke basketball fanbase (again, though, he never actually indicates the intended audience of his tweets) after receiving negative feedback from his latest tweet.

You see, Duval is the type of guy who will tweet a snide statement, wait for Duke fans to punch back with derogatory remarks, and then audaciously respond with a sentence such as “True colors always show, wow” — as he tweeted after fans ripped him for his last slap to the face of the Duke basketball program.

That response came Aug. 9, just after the NCAA announced that players will now be allowed to continue playing for a school if they are not selected in the NBA Draft. This is what Duval — who did not hear his name called in the 2018 NBA Draft — had tweeted to incite the as-to-be-expected vitriol from Duke fans:

https://twitter.com/DatGuy_Trey/status/1027388838342086657

Duval, who signed a two-way contract with the Milwaukee Bucks in July, is certainly not doing anything to benefit the future of the Duke basketball program by spreading his hurtful opinions for all eyes to see — including the eyes of the Blue Devils’ recruiting targets in the 2019 class.

As of right now, the Duke coaches have heard infinitely more rejections than commitments — five to zero — from their offers to 2019 prospects, and it is possible that Duval’s Twitter account has played some role in those recent recruiting failures. However, one thing’s for sure: Krzyzewski will not resort to blaming Duval if he doesn’t land all the recruits he is pursuing.

So, here’s the question for Coach K:

Was it worth it to recruit a guy like Duval?

Before he ever started hurting the program with his tweets, his 29.0 shooting percentage from behind the arc hurt last season’s squad. Same goes for his 59.6 percentage from the charity stripe (I guess Coach K forbade him from practicing free throws), 2.8 turnovers per game, and hissy fits after seeing subs check-in to take his place on the floor.

But here’s the question for Duval:

Why not limit the opinions you share about Duke to positive ones?

Even if he has to fake it, strictly positive remarks about the Blue Devils (or none at all) would keep Duval from infuriating an entire fanbase and burning a bridge for no reason at all.

After all, nobody knows what the future holds. Maybe one day his confidence will be shaken, and he will wish he could return to Cameron Indoor Stadium and hear the crowd chant his name over and over to help him rebuild that confidence. That won’t be easy now that he is spreading negativity about the program.

Or maybe he will surprise the doubters and become a stud in the NBA. I actually hope Duval does have success, even if I no longer choose to consider him a true Dukie. It took a long time, but I’ve matured beyond wishing failure on anyone — except, of course, for Tar Heels (but that’s different).

The lifespans of bitter words are long.