It will be a new looking Park boys basketball team this season with several key players graduated, but also several key ones back for more.

Park was 12-16 overall last winter, finishing eighth in the Suburban East Conference with a 6-12 record. The Wolfpack won 76-62 at Rosemount in the Class 4A, Section 3 quarterfinals a year ago, then lost at Apple Valley in the semifinals, 80-63.

Park lost four seniors off last year’s team: guards Mac Maluski, Anthony Giadyu, Miskir Esayas and forward Leo Eiden-Giel. But those four contributed much of the offensive firepower last season. Giadyu led Park with 18.9 points per game, while Esayas (14.9 ppg), Maluski (5.8 ppg) and Eiden-Giel (4.2) all were key players.

Giadyu – a 1,000-point scorer in his Park basketball career now playing at Central Lake College in Brainard this season – and his abilities to drive to the basket and score will in particular be hard to duplicate.

“We’ve got more than a couple good guys back,” said head coach Isaiah Wallfred. “We’ve got quite a few good guys back that have had some experience and played in some big games, made big plays. … I’m expecting a lot of big things out of them.”

Key returners for the Wolfpack are senior guards Brandon Bihm (8.7 ppg) and Caleb Sweet (5.3 ppg), senior forward Aaron Sandin (9.6 ppg.), junior forward Justin Ebbers (6.4 ppg).

Bihm started last season and is a do-it-all player for Park. “A really good player for us,” said Wallfred.

 “Caleb Sweet is going to be a big-time player for us this year. He’s out best defender. He can guard five positions on the floor.”

“Justin Ebbers is going to be a really big player for us inside.”

 “Obviously we’ve got Aaron (Sandin) coming back who was a starter. Unbelievable shooter.”

 “Griffin (Sell) who in fall was one of our best players and we expect big things from him.”

 “Peyton (Faber) was out last year with an injury to his foot. He would have played varsity minutes last year. He’s going to play a lot of point guard for us. He’s a really good shooter.”

“O’Neal (Attisso) maybe our best defensive big man.”

Park welcomes back five seniors to the roster and all should make an impact this season for the Wolfpack.

“They’re all going to play and play a big role,” said Wallfred. “We have multiple juniors and we could be as much as 10 deep. My expectation, quite honestly, I think we have a chance to have a better record than we did last year. We expect to compete every game. We expect to be in every game. I think we’ll be better defensively this year, which will be huge to us. And we still have a lot of guys that can shoot. We probably have four or five guys that I would say can shoot 40 percent from three. It’s going to be a strength of ours, to shoot the three. We’ve still got to try and get in there and shoot some layups and post up a little bit but really what we are is a perimeter-oriented team.”

Park was batting .500 most of the season last winter, standing 10-9 on Feb. 7, but then finished 2-7 over the last nine games. Still the Wolfpack played one of its best games at the very end, taking a 76-62 win at Rosemount in the Section 3 quarterfinals, then giving an Apple Valley team that advanced to state a competitive game in the section semifinals. Park returns six of their top 10 from that game.

The offense will look a little different this season, with Park not relaying on the speed and penetrating offense of Giadyu.

“Offensively we’re doing a lot of the same things,” said Wallfred. “We’re running most of the same plays. We’ve added a little bit more of an early game, the transition game, because we can’t rely on Ant just to blow by everybody. We don’t have that speed, we’re a little different so we’re going to play more of an early game.”

Wallfred said the Wolfpack legitimately have six guys who could lead the team in scoring in any game.

“Defensively we’re going to pick up more full court, we’re deeper now so we can play more guys,” Wallfred explained. “We’re going to put more pressure on the point guard. We’re going to have a lot of gap help. We’re going to send people baseline, sideline, we’re going to get up and guard, we’re going to put pressure on people and we’re going to try and create some turnovers.”

Park hosts Brooklyn Center on Wednesday, Dec. 3 to open the season, then entertains St. Paul Como Park on Friday, Dec. 5. The first Suburban East Conference game follows, with a Dec. 9 game at Stillwater.

The SEC should be strong as usual. Cretin-Derham Hall (29-2 overall) won the conference last season with a 17-1 record and finished second in the state, falling in the championship to Wayzata. East Ridge (21-7) was just behind at 16-2 in the SEC and advanced to the Class 4A, Section 4 semifinal before falling at Tartan.

Park hosts Brooklyn Center on Wednesday, Dec. 3 to open the season, then entertains St. Paul Como Park on Friday, Dec. 5. Brooklyn Center was just 4-23 last season, while St. Paul Como Park went 11-15. The first Suburban East Conference game follows, with a Dec. 9 game at Stillwater.