Duke opens exhibition play against Northwest Missouri State Saturday evening, and while Duke will obviously be favored, as we told you previously, the Bearcats are a program accustomed to winning. Winning is a habit and over the last 105 games they’re 100-5.
You know, that’s really extraordinary. Having a solid season or two is impressive but that’s sustained success, really, not all that far from UCLA dynasty levels. The Bearcats won the D-II championship in 2017 and 2019 and last year they were undefeated.
They’re certainly aware that they’re the underdogs but our guess is they’ll come in with a lot of understandable confidence and that their coach will point out to them that they have a significant advantage that Duke can’t hope to replicate: the players on this team know each other very, very well.