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By David Boyce  |  Northwest Missouri Men's Basketball at Duke  |  Friday, Oct. 27  |  6 p.m. CST  |  Durham, N.C.  |  Exhibition Game
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MARYVILLE, Mo. - Soon after Northwest Missouri State's men's basketball team beat Fairmont State 71-61 on March 25 and won its first NCAA Division II title, the Bearcats knew one other treat came with it.
 
As confetti flew through the air at Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D. and the Bearcats hoisted the championship trophy and cut down nets, the returners for the 2017-18 season knew they were going to Cameron Indoor Stadium to play Duke in an exhibition game.
 
For Division II basketball players, it is the equivalent of a Super Bowl champion saying: "I'm going to Disney World."
 
At 6 p.m. Friday, Northwest, the defending Division II national champions, will take on Duke, one of college basketball's Blue Bloods. The Bearcats will experience the Cameron Crazies in the 9,300-seat arena.
 
"There are not a lot of Division II teams that can say they played against Duke," said Northwest 6-foot-7 senior forward Chris-Ebou Ndow. "We know about their program and their coach and what they have accomplished.
 
"It is an honor to be a part of that and be able to compete against them and see the highest level of college basketball. We have a lot of respect for them. We will try to earn some respect from them as well."
 
Duke started its tradition of playing the Division II national champion in 2009. It will be the third time the Blue Devils face a Division II team from Missouri. In 2013 they played Drury, and in 2014 they took on Central Missouri.
 
"I think it is awesome because I wouldn't play the NAIA national champions," said Northwest coach Ben McCollum.
 
McCollum is impressed with the hospitality Northwest has already been shown by Duke. The Bearcats left Maryville Wednesday morning and were practicing inside Cameron later that day.
 
"They have been classy," McCollum said. "They don't big-time you. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski gave an interview to our president, Dr. John Jasinki. He got on the phone and said he had 10 minutes before he had to get to practice. He went for 30 minutes. It says a lot about him and the program that they run."
 
McCollum has the same type of classy program that alums and fans enjoy following. In fact, well over a hundred of them are making the trip to Durham, N.C. to see the Bearcats play Duke.
 
Simply put, Duke is creating lifetime memories for Division II programs every year.
 
"I heard about the tradition a few years ago," Ndow said. "It is pretty awesome that they do it. It makes it even more exciting to win the national championship. You can say you won the national championship and you get the opportunity to play against Duke. It is something that you can tell your grandkids."
 
McCollum wants his players to get two things from this exhibition game. First, he wants them to enjoy it and treat it like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
 
Second, he wants the players to know that they are facing a difficult task, but are preparing with the idea of winning the game.
 
"When you do that, and you make a mistake against Duke, they will expose it," McCollum said. "If we can prepare for Duke as if we are trying to win, then when you get to your season and play Division II opponents, hopefully, the things that were exposed against Duke, we can correct."
 
Ndow let out a laugh when asked if the players have talked about beating Duke.
 
"We know we have a good team coming back, but we don't talk about beating them," Ndow said. "It is more just competing against them. We feel we can be a team that earns their respect."
 
All signs point to Northwest having another stellar season despite the loss of seniors Zach Schneider, Anthony Woods and D'Vante Mosby, who were all tremendous defensive players.
 
But the Bearcats return important players in Ndow, senior Justin Pitts, the Division II player of the year, senior center Brett Dougherty and super sub, sophomore Ryan Welty. Northwest also adds a solid transfer from Minnesota State in 6-7 forward Joey Witthus.
 
"We have some new guys, and we have some returners, so if we can get our mindset to defend a team like Duke, we will be well prepared for any other competition we might face," Ndow said.
 
"We know people are going to be hungry to beat us. We are used to it. In conference, we were the team to beat. I felt there was more pressure last year. We knew the team we had. We had the mindset of championship or bust, which is a lot of pressure to put on yourself."
 
McCollum said he hasn't come up with how the team is going to handle talk of being the defending national champions.
 
"We talked about we need to be hungry and flush last year out of our system," McCollum said. "I think it is important to at least bring it up on how we are going to handle it. Honestly, we don't have pressure this year. We need to find ways to put pressure on ourselves because that creates the hunger."
 
After the fantasyland-type game on Friday, Northwest has nearly two weeks before it plays the first game that counts. The Bearcats take on Upper Iowa at 1 p.m. Nov. 10 at Missouri Western.
 
Northwest figures to face a stern test. A year ago, the Bearcats trounced Upper Iowa 87-52 in the season opener. The two teams saw each other again in the Central Region quarterfinals. Northwest needed overtime to beat Upper Iowa 79-74 at Bearcat Arena.
 
Ndow said the Bearcats are ready for the challenges that await them in the 2017-18 season.
 
"In general, I am excited that the team is going to be good again this year," Ndow said. "We lost three key players. We have a transfer who is really good and has shown a lot of promise. We have hungry guys who didn't play a lot last year but are capable of giving valuable minutes this year. We have the Division II player of the year back.
 
"We have a lot of hungry guys who are ready to be just as good, if not better, than last year."