The next step for Grayson Allen will be even harder than being suspended

Now comes the hard part.

As difficult as it might have been for Duke Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski to sit Grayson Allen down and tell him his junior season was on indefinite hiatus, what's next will be even more challenging. And twice as critical.

Suspending Allen indefinitely for his third tripping offense was the right decision. Allen needs the timeout. But what he does with the time off and how Duke handles his absence will be the most telling.

Remember, this team started the season as a clear-cut favorite to win a national title. Loaded with freshman talent, armed with returning veterans and coached by the ultimate winner, the Blue Devils lacked nothing. Injuries put some early-season goals on the back burner, but the strong belief was that once Duke was whole again, this team would soar back to being the oddsmakers' title favorite.

Part of that assumption was based on Allen. Remember, he was a leading Wooden Award candidate when the season started, the star attraction on a team loaded with stars.

The assumption also was based on the notion that the Blue Devils, once healthy -- Harry Giles, Jayson Tatum, Marques Bolden and even Allen have struggled with injuries -- would stroll along with nary a hiccup. But this is more than a hiccup. This is an indeterminate bellyache.

Duke players will be asked about Allen's behavior and about playing without him. Krzyzewski will be pressed on when Allen might return and what he wants his star player to learn from all of this. And, of course, once he's reinserted into the lineup, Allen will be besieged.

At some point, too, the circus will hit the road, traveling through ACC towns and cities that aren't exactly predisposed to like the Blue Devils on a good day. Eventually the road will lead to the NCAA tournament. Yes, that is three months away, and by then it might seem a dead issue. But those who truly believe that Allen's tripping propensity will become a dead issue are also waiting on the jolly old man and his reindeer to arrive on Sunday.

So how Duke weathers the storm -- the X's and O's on-the-court reality of losing one of its best players and the off-the-court mayhem his absence creates -- will determine how this season goes as much as, if not more than, Giles' knee stability.

For the Blue Devils, the good news about the former is that Luke Kennard has been their steadiest and best player all season. And now everyone, including Giles, is healthy. The good news to the latter is there are plenty of older players -- Amile Jefferson and Matt Jones, especially -- to help walk the freshmen through their first minefield. Of course, this isn't exactly the head coach's first rodeo, either.

In the grand scheme of things, what happens to the Blue Devils pales in comparison to what happens with Allen. This isn't about his NBA future. Plenty of NBA general managers are looking at Allen, weighing the decision to invest in his skills versus the money burned if he's suspended for bad behavior. But this is bigger than that.

Part of what makes Allen so good is the passion he plays with, a fearless abandon that fuels him. He can't lose that edge, but he also can't teeter off it. That's a tricky line to walk, to learn to play with emotion without playing emotionally, to trust himself enough to let go -- but not go too far. Duke absolutely needs him to master that, so that when he returns to the lineup the Blue Devils get all of the parts that make Grayson Allen great and none that make him a liability.

No matter what he does when he returns, even if he scores 50 points, behaves perfectly and helps old ladies across the court during timeouts, there will be a segment of the population that will never forgive Allen and will never like Duke.

But this isn't about them. It's not even about public remorse or reputation repair. When little kids are sent to the timeout chair, they're told to think about their behavior.

This is Allen's time to think about what he has done.

Frankly, it's time for him to grow up. Duke's season might be depending on it.