The ISU men’s basketball team is 40-4 all-time in exhibition games and has never lost an exhibition game to a college team. Although Friday’s 7 p.m. tipoff against the UNC-Pembroke Braves won’t count in the record books, Cyclone players don’t intend to lose this warm-up on their home floor.

During a 96-47 blowout of NAIA opponent Black Hills State on Monday, the Cyclones shot 57.6 percent overall, including 11-for-16 from 3-point range. The shooting hands may not be that hot Friday evening, but the focus will be there from experienced players as the team gets one last tune-up before next Friday’s opener against Idaho State.

“I take all games seriously, because you never know — some of those guys could be D-I guys that messed up somehow and ended up being D-II,” forward Craig Brackins said. “Just because a team is D-II or NAIA, you shouldn’t knock them just because they’re lower. It doesn’t mean they’re not good.”

A hundred and twenty miles southeast of Charlotte, Pembroke is a town with a high Native-American influence, and the University of North Carolina’s satellite school in the town plays Division II athletics.

“You can’t take any team lightly. It doesn’t matter if they’re a D-II school or even a D-III school, because on any given night, anybody can beat you,” said junior guard Diante Garrett.

Monday’s game let newcomers Marquis Gilstrap and LaRon Dendy hit the floor in Cyclone uniforms, and stack up 14 and 16 points. Brackins added 14 points, three boards, three assists and two blocks in only 20 minutes of play. Coach Greg McDermott doesn’t plan to play the starters for much longer than that against UNC-Pembroke, but enough to give them a feel for team play, providing the Cyclones have a lead.

Traditional Big East powerhouse Syracuse opened some eyes to what can happen if a team has a lack of drive from players in the preseason, as the Orangemen lost in an exhibition to D-II LeMoyne College on Tuesday.

“I saw the highlights; I thought it was funny. I didn’t see the game, so I don’t know everything that happened, but I don’t think that should have happened,” Brackins said.

A major Syracuse link is former Cyclone and current Orange forward Wesley Johnson, who scored 34 points in his Orangemen debut — two years removed since his transfer from Ames.

Johnson played with Garrett and Brackins during his time at Hilton Coliseum, and the group still communicates like most former teammates.

“I was talking to him last week on Twitter, we were twittering each other, but we were just talking about the first exhibition game he had — that was kind of crazy. Stuff like that happens sometimes,” Garrett said.

Johnson’s performance displayed his skills, especially scoring in bunches in an exhibition game, but Brackins wanted to make sure that let down against a lower level didn’t affect the Cyclones.

“I haven’t talked to Wesley yet. I was going to call him up, but I figured he was getting enough crap already,” Brackins said.

On the opponent’s bench will be Eldon Miller, McDermott’s coach while he was a player at Northern Iowa.

Miller is a 70 year old basketball scholar that has coached six NCAA tournament teams and coached at Ohio State for 12 years.

McDermott’s mentor Miller is on the bench as an assistant for his son, Ben, who is currently the head coach after assistant jobs at Kansas and Missouri State.

“I’m really looking forward to it. He means a great deal to me and is one of the biggest reasons I was interested in coaching to start with,” McDermott said.

McDermott said L.A. Pomlee and freshman Antwon Oliver were questionable for the game after sitting out Monday’s exhibition in street clothes.

The two are nursing nagging maladies, and McDermott said he would evaluate their status before game time.