PITTSBURGH — Dan Hurley saw Duke end up in his corner of the bracket, and knew the season could end in disaster.
Even his brother’s back-to-back title teams might have inflicted less damage.
Second-seeded Duke used every inherent advantage — size, talent, athleticism, swag — to overwhelm seventh-seeded Rhode Island on both ends of the floor and easily dispatched the Atlantic 10 champions, 87-62, in Saturday’s NCAA Tournament Midwest Region second-round matchup at PPG Paints Arena.
“They looked like an NBA team out there with their size and length,” Hurley said. “It was just a tough matchup for us. I wish we would have had a shot at one of the other seven 1 and 2 [seeds]. They played an A-plus game. They were locked in.
“We would’ve needed a C-plus game from them just to have a chance to be competitive. That was the best display of basketball I’ve seen played against one of my Rhode Island teams in six years. … A superior opponent played an A-plus game and we never got a sniff.”
The Blue Devils (28-7) face the winner of third-seeded Michigan State-11th-seeded Syracuse in the Sweet 16 in Omaha, Neb., with the most talented team in the country peaking again in March.
Every Duke starter scored in double-figures and the team combined to shoot 57 percent from the field (10-of-21 3-pointers), and its ever-improving zone defense was just as sharp, holding the Rams under 40 percent shooting.
“Start to finish, it was one of our best games,” said Mike Krzyzewski, who earned his 1,099th career win and passed former Tennessee women’s coach Pat Summitt for the most Division I wins all-time. “I thought we played in a very mature manner. … We shared the ball real well, we were patient, and our defense was really good.”
Rhode Island held Marvin Bagley III without a shot for the game’s first 11 minutes, but Duke’s four other projected first-round picks remained.
Though the ACC Player of the Year was neutralized, fellow big man Wendell Carter Jr. attacked a helpless Rams interior, finishing with 13 points and hitting all six shot attempts.
E.C. Matthews (23 points) and Rhode Island led 11-10 after eight minutes, but then the Blue Devils hit their thrusters and got hot from outside, going on a 23-6 run and making eight straight shots.
Duke led 45-28 at halftime and eventually stretched the margin to 29, with Bagley unable to be contained once he got touches. He finished with a team-high 22 points on 8-of-10 shooting and added nine rebounds.
“Everybody was on,” Bagley said. “We were clicking on all cylinders.”
After 18 years without an NCAA Tournament appearance, Rhode Island (27-7) fell in the second round for the second straight year. The program’s future is now in doubt with Hurley — the only coach in school history to win NCAA Tournament games in multiple years — considered a top candidate for the coaching vacancies at Pittsburgh and UConn.
“I could give a crap about who’s got an opening or anywhere. I haven’t thought about it for a second,” Hurley said after the game. “I could care less about any other player in the country that’s looking for a coach, or talks about me on social media, I could give two craps about that. My heart and my mind is with this program, and these players who just lost a brutal game after having an amazing last couple of seasons.
“We all have agents in this business. My agent [Jordan Bazant] is smart enough to have no contact with me while my season’s going on. He knows who I am, and what type of people my family is, and that’s not typical in this business.”
