FULLERTON — When the name popped up on the TV screens during Cal State Fullerton’s NCAA Tournament Selection Show watch party on Sunday, there were no groans from the players or guests gathered at a downtown restaurant. There were some cheers and even a sense of elation.

No, the name “Duke,” one of the deepest blues of college basketball’s blue-blood programs, did not scare off any of the players who had just won the Big West Tournament title the night before.

As one fan said, it’s no tougher a task than sweeping the annual road trip to UC Davis and Cal Poly, in the high grass of the conference’s northern-most opponents.

Tongue in cheek, no doubt. But when your program rarely gets any national attention, the chance to take on the five-time national champions in a nationally televised first-round game on Friday (4:10 p.m. PT, Ch. 2) is exciting.

“It’s March,” senior guard Tray Maddox Jr. said. “Anything can happen. There’s been hundreds of games won by the underdog or a team no one knew.

“I think it’s great. It’s a chance to show we can face and beat the best teams. Really, there’s nothing but great teams in the tourney, no matter who they are.”

Fullerton and Duke have never met, and the Titans have played just four games against Atlantic Coast Conference teams ever: Pittsburgh and Miami once each and Wake Forest twice.

There is extra juice associated with Duke this season, since it is the final season for longtime Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski. Duke is the No. 2 seed in the West Region; some prognosticators say the Blue Devils deserved a No. 1 seed; others believe they are over-seeded because most of the ACC had a down year.

“There are a lot of people who look forward to upsets,” Maddox said. “I think more people will watch this game than any other first-rounder because we’ve shown we’re capable. It’s a big game, but at the end, names are just names.”

Duke has reached 16 Final Fours – 12 of them and the five national titles have all come under Krzyzewski – but not every season has ended in glory. The names-are-just-names thought has some validity for Duke.

Duke was upset in the 1984 and 1993 tournaments by Pac-12 teams, the ’84 Washington squad beat a third-seeded Blue Devils team behind 30 points from Detlef Schrempf. In ’93, Cal and Jason Kidd beat a third-seeded Duke squad in a second-round game.

In 1996, Eastern Michigan upset eighth-seeded Duke in the first round. In 2007, a then-unknown Virginia Commonwealth squad beat a sixth-seeded Blue Devils squad. In 2008, Duke almost dropped a 2-vs.-15 game against Belmont before losing to a seventh-seeded West Virginia team in the second round.

And in 2012, No. 15 seed Lehigh upset second-seeded Duke. For what it’s worth, two notable media sources project Duke losing a second-round game to Davidson this weekend.

“Basketball is supposed to be fun, so we can make the best of this opportunity by coming in and playing our best game and spread our program’s success outside of California,” Fullerton coach Dedrique Taylor said.

Even in a down year for the ACC, Duke has some exceptional players, with five players predicted to be first-round NBA draft picks – 6-foot-10 forward Paolo Banchero, 3-point specialist Trevor Keels, 6-6 wing A.J. Griffin, 7-1 center Mark Williams and 6-5 wing Wendell Moore Jr.

Certainly, Duke will have a size advantage, but 6-7 senior forward E.J. Anosike shrugged that off his broad shoulders.

“I think it’s great to go against the teams who have great reputations,” he said. “The greater the test, the greater chance of having a great moment for the school.”

Senior point guard Damari Milstead broke the game down to each team’s style and habits.

“Our game plan begins with our defense, and we practice defense 70 percent of the time, since most offense starts with defense,” Milstead said. “It’s hard work, but we’ve put in the time to win like this. The first thing people watching will notice is how hard we work.”

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Eight current Big West schools have played in the NCAA Tournament since 2009, and two teams won first-round games before being eliminated in the second.

No. 13 seed UC Irvine beat No. 4 Kansas State in 2019, 70-64, before being eliminated by No. 12 Oregon in round two. In 2016, 13th-seeded Hawaii upset No. 4 Cal, 77-66, in the first round and played fifth-seeded Maryland tough in the second round.

Two other schools won play-in games when the tournament expanded the field from 64 to 68 teams. In 2014, Cal Poly beat Texas Southern, 81-68, to earn a No. 16 seed then got crushed by top seed Wichita State, 64-37. In 2017, UC Davis edged North Carolina Central, 67-63, then was thumped by Kansas, 100-62.

There have been some close calls. In 2015, No. 13 seed UCI lost to No. 4 Louisville, 57-55. In 2012, 12th-seeded Long Beach State lost to No. 5 New Mexico, 75-68, and 12th-seeded UC Santa Barbara was edged, 63-62, by No. 5 Creighton last year.