Duke's demolition of Illinois raises the Blue Devils' reputation yet another notch in advance of March
NEW YORK — It was a blowout that bloated into a laugher that morphed into a demolition and finished as a historic annihilation.
No. 3 Duke handed Illinois its worst loss in program history with a 110-67 victory Saturday night at Madison Square Garden.
This was supposed to be a game that highlighted the rarity of a special circumstance: two big-name programs finding a way in the modern era to schedule each other in a nonconference game in the February.
As good as it was to have this matchup — and as I wrote Friday, we're likely to get more of them in the years to come, thankfully — that element of this game was completely obliterated by Duke's latest display of dominance that gives credence to the possibility that this program can win its first national title without Mike Krzyzewski on the sidelines.
The evening's festivities fizzled by the midway point of the first half. The Blue Devils led 30-16 11 minutes in and sprinted away thereafter. Seven players finished in double figures, with the second half effectively playing out like recess.
It got so out of hand that one of the biggest roars of the night came for Spencer Hubbard.
Who the hell is Spencer Hubbard? He's a 5-foot-7 grad student walk-on who got the gift of his life: 2 minutes and 13 seconds of uninterrupted play at the World's Most Famous Arena. After some anxious cheering on a few consecutive possessions, Hubbard sent the Duke crowd into a frenzy with a step-back 3-pointer that swished with 49 seconds remaining, getting Duke to its final tally of 110 points.
The crowd burst into jubilation.
It was Duke's night.
Most nights this season have been Duke's nights.
Unfortunately, the game lacked an iota of drama. Even Cooper Flagg's MSG debut didn't exactly sparkle. He was muted on offense through the first half (just four points) but it didn't matter because Duke tore through Illinois elsewhere. Flagg finished with 16 points, seven rebounds and five assists.
"I don't know what message it sends," Flagg said, and can you blame him? Duke's gotten accustomed to destroying teams. It treated Illinois like a cellar dweller of the woeful ACC. "It's just a good opportunity to get outside the bubble of the ACC and play a different team we hadn't played before."
The Blue Devils are 24-3 and now rate as No. 1 in most predictive metrics. It's fairly obvious that this team's best is as good as anyone's in the country. Yes, even Auburn. (Of course, Duke beat Auburn at Cameron Indoor Stadium back in December.)
"You don't think you're going to beat Illinois by that amount, of course not," Duke coach Jon Scheyer told CBS Sports.
It was so bad, Illinois didn't hit its first 3-pointer until the 12-minute mark of the second half. Most Illinois fans in attendance erupted in sardonic applause; the Illini had missed its first 17 triples to that point. Illinois finished 2 of 26 from deep, its worst display from beyond the arc since 2000.
This is Scheyer's 15th season with Duke as a player, assistant and head coach. Of the previous 14, three have made the Final Four; many have been a No. 1 or No. 2 seed. I asked Scheyer which group this one most closely resembles from any previous Duke team.
"This team is unique in its own right," Scheyer said. "Can you say the connectivity of the '15 team? Sure, but I've tried really not to compare because this team has come together in its own unique way, which I love."
At this point the Blue Devils are just playing out the string until we get to the NCAA Tournament. We're going to have to wait until late March to see this team face a team anywhere near their orbit. It doesn't mean Duke's destined to run the table from now until Selection Sunday, but if that wound up being the case it wouldn't surprise a single person who's followed college basketball closely this season. Saturday marked the third time this season Duke cracked 100 points. It's probably got a couple more of those in the bag in the next three weeks.
The lack of resistance against Duke has, for the most part, actually hurt this team's appeal. No one in the ACC has given resistance — outside of Clemson — and that's dipped a little bit of the drawing appeal for this team. Illinois is easily NCAA Tournament-bound, and this is what we have.
Duke's beatable. We've seen that. But at its best, Duke could be historically great. Scheyer wanted this game as an NCAA Tournament tune-up. It looked more like a first round walkover than the Elite Eight tease it was booked as.
Buckle up: Duke is college basketball's Big Bad yet again. If only we didn't have to wait another month to see this team face a worthy opponent.
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