URI’s Will Martell soars to block a shot by Duke’s Jon Scheyer during the second half of Sunday’s thriller at Durham, N.C. Click here to see a gallery of game photos.

AP / Sara D. Davis

If University of Rhode Island basketball fans seem a bit confused right about now, it is understandable. Two games into the season and the Rams are puzzling. They already have played to extremes.

There is no way — or at least coach Jim Baron hopes so — that the team can be as weak as it showed in its opener against Brown. The Rams were lucky to escape the Bears’ upset bid, 76-74.

On the other hand, it is not likely the team can be as good every time out as it was Sunday when it did everything except beat Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Blue Devils pulled out an 82-79 thriller only after being behind for virtually the entire game as URI played excellent basketball.

“Their whole team played at a bigtime level. That’s a very athletic basketball team and poised,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said of the Rams. “They’re good. They’re really good.”

In his postgame news conference Sunday, Baron praised his team and made reference to what will be one of the top priorities for his team.

“We have to be consistent,” he said.

The performance against Duke gives the team a target to shoot for every time out. The Rams shot 54 percent overall. They made 10 of 14 3-pointers, thanks to the run of seven in a row by Jimmy Baron in the second half. They outrebounded the Blue Devils, 31-29.

There were only two stats that went against them. URI had 18 turnovers to 10 for Duke. The other was an even bigger killer. Duke was 28-for-32 from the foul line. URI was 10-for-14. Duke, the team that was behind, went 10-for-10 at the foul line in the final 3:18. URI, the team that was ahead most of that time, went 2-for-2.

It was the kind of game rarely seen in November (although URI played a similar game, which it won, at Syracuse last year) and rarely seen before January at Cameron Indoor. As Krzyzewski said, “I hope it helps both of us.”

It did begin to provide some answers that could help the Rams become more consistent. Here are two areas where it could have a carryover benefit:

• Delroy James’ performance

The Rams need someone to help Jimmy Baron with the scoring, to be a consistent threat each game. James has the ability to be that guy. But the 6-foot-7 forward has played only one semester of basketball after missing three straight.

James was outstanding against Duke, with 21 points and a game-high eight rebounds. His work got a bit lost because of the fabulous second-half shooting performance by Baron, but it was a very encouraging sign for the Rams. Krzyzewski, when he wasn’t praising Baron, heaped credit on James, speaking about how he “really got them started and wore us out.”

Krzyzewski spoke about how James is a difficult player to guard at the four position. He is a player who does a lot of different things, a player at that spot “like we’ve had for a long time.”

•The press

Baron is adamant in feeling that his team needs to press to make games play at the rapid pace that will suit it. The press, though, had been ineffective in the two preseason games and the Brown opener. Against Duke, URI made some changes, doing less double-teaming, playing more straight man and doing more backtracking to prevent easy hoops.

The press does not have to come up with steals to help the Rams. If they play it like they did against Duke, merely harassing opponents into a quicker pace, it will serve URI well.

Finally, some Cameron leftovers:

•About 90 minutes after the URI game ended, a fire alarm sounded at Cameron Indoor. At first, the half dozen reporters working in the press room did not pay attention. But when it kept ringing, there was concern and someone went to check. A Duke official came in and assured everyone there was no problem.

“It’s that Baron kid’s fault,” the Duke official said. “He was on fire in here an hour and a half ago.”

•Duke and URI now have played three times. They had a 63-62 game in the 1978 NCAA Tournament and a 73-72 contest in the 1988 NCAA Tournament, both won by Duke. The Sunday game made it three-for-three in great games between the schools. So, Krzyzewski was asked, wouldn’t it be good if the schools could play again? Krzyzewski cocked his head a bit, indicating that maybe he didn’t think it was such a great idea. But then he responded.

“We could do it,” he said, “as long as you can guarantee the result will be the same. Can you guarantee that?”

•If anyone wonders why Duke is the class program it is, all he or she needs to do is get the transcripts from the Duke side after this game. Krzyzewski was truly classy, spending as much time praising URI as he did speaking about how well his team played. The Duke players, too, went out of their way to compliment not only Baron, but the entire URI team for the way it played.

All in all, it was a fabulous show, a great day of college basketball.

pkenyon@projo.com