Alleva's performance before the lacrosse debacle, has been undistinguished to put it politely. Duke football, terrible when he took over, is now worse. (Brilliant move turning down Bobby Ross, who has only won a national title and coached in the Super Bowl to hire the immortal Ted Roof). Alleva also hired a crony of his to coach baseball and kept him around through one losing season after another until accusations by ex-players that the coach had encouraged them to used steriods finally forced his hand.
When the lacrosse story first broke, Alleva's initial public reaction was, "this is an unfortunate incident."
Huh? Unfortunate? Losing to LSU in the Sweet Sixteen was an unfortunate incident for Duke. This goes well beyond that. Alleva has basically been told since then to shut up and not say anything publicly because he can't be trusted to keep his foot out of his mouth. Someone should have told Trask the same thing. Two weeks ago he was quoted in the Duke student newspaper, The Chronicle, as saying that he was aware there were behavioral problems with the lacrosse team (he did not mention that he had seen a written report on the subject) but felt as if the school had a handle on those problems.
