Duke Opens Exhibition Season On Saturday

Duke will open its exhibition season with a game against Northwest Missouri State, Saturday at 7:00.

The game continues Duke’s tradition of playing the reigning Division II national champion in an exhibition.

Duke appears to have started the tradition in 2007-08, when it played Barton. It resumed in 2009-10 and has played the Division II champion every year since.

Duke’s average victory in this game is 96.8 to 57.6. The closest games were in 2013, when Drury lost 81-65 and 2012, when Western Washington fell 105-87.

Unlike many teams, Duke plays two exhibition games, turning down the opportunity for a “secret scrimmage” against another program.

In the past, coach Mike Krzyzewski has explained this decision:

“There are few things—pros and cons. The pros are we get to play in front of a crowd, which I think is good. If you play good opponents, which if we can play the national champion in Division II from the year before we'll play them. So you're playing against a very well-coached team that is coming off an unbelievable year. Plus we make money for our athletic department. There are a lot of sports here that have to be funded.”

Krzyzewski has said repeatedly over the years that he likes to start with the Division II champions, because “you know you’re going to be tested by a team that is well coached and believes it can win.”

Northwest Missouri will certainly fit that bill. It’s the second time in three years the Bearcats have traveled to Cameron Indoor after cutting down the nets the previous spring. Over that span, Northwest has gone 100-5, including a perfect 38-0 last season.

Duke won the 2017 matchup 93-60, which is the closest exhibition against the national champions since 2013 and the fewest points Duke has scored since 2014.

Surprisingly, Duke and Northwest Missouri have the same number of players on their roster who participated in that 2017 exhibition.

Bearcats forward Ryan Hawkins was the team’s high scorer in that game, with 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting, 4-of-6 from three, in just 16 minutes.

Ryan Welty had five points, four rebounds and three assists in 23 minutes. Tyler Dougherty had 4 points in 7 minutes. Kirk Finley was scoreless in 6 minutes and Daric Laing scoreless in 1.

For Duke, Javin DeLaurier scored 9 points on 4-of-4 shooting, including a three pointer. He also had seven rebounds in 18 minutes.

Jordan Goldwire was scoreless with five rebounds and two assists in 16 minutes.

Alex O’Connell was scoreless in 14 minutes. Jack White was scoreless in 7. Justin Robinson had 4 points and 3 rebounds in 8 minutes.