Its cool. I aint mad at ya..
I tend to think part of is measuring desire. The desire to work to get better, the desire to practice to get better, the desire to listen to the coaches, the desire execute on the court.
In the Pavlovian sense, to give him a lil taste to spark a response. When a situation arises and his # is called hes got to be ready to go. He has to be ready to embrace the opportunity and take full advantage. G is not the only frosh this has ever happened to at Duke.
My Guess (and mine alone) is that Duke provides more of a "Montessori" approach to basketball than other programs. Other schools mollycoddle their players a good bit more to elicit what they want. This mollycoddling prolly began in middle school with a given player because they demonstrated a particular aptitude with a ball and a hoop. Its what they are used to and what they expect to a certain extent. I think it may also speak to some recruiting issues/perceptions. Notably TParker wanting a school to "make" him into something.
Coaches can instruct and teach, facilities can be the absolute sparkling best, but the ultimate impetus for improvement has to come from within the player in the Duke system. The staff tries to set up the BEST stage/environment for that to come out. They have the tools and resources, but ultimately the player has to produce. The players that produce generally tend to be rewarded.
He must have heard something wrong in the huddle and thought Coach K called him "GRivers" If G was going to take that shot he needed to make it! or follow the game-plan script for his role. I dare say that if he generated a turnover or got a rebound on D it would have offset the missed shot to some degree. But back to back errors... bad shot and giving the opposition points on a foul shots. I can see the hook.
As for the Towel thing... why cant he be mad at himself or frustrated with his play? If he channels that energy the right way he'll get better... I don't see why the automatic assumption is that he is mad at K or unhappy at Duke being the key implication.
I wish G well and I hope he keeps working to get better. Same for Andre and Quinn and our other guys.
On the contrary, I appreciate your in-depth analysis of what you saw from the sidelines. When watching games on TV, we are limited to what the cameraman focus on. I'd like to see more panning of the sidelines during time-outs or breaks in action versus watching a Progressive Insurance commercial for the one-hundreth time. Actually I wish I could be as fortunate as you and actually see a Duke regular season game in person.