I’m not going to lie. When I did my season preview this year for the Austin boys basketball team and head coach Kris Fadness told me he thought they’d be near the top of the Big Nine and Section 1AAA, I had to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.

I remembered last year’s Austin’s team that showed some promise but couldn’t finish the close ones. I knew most of the roster was back, but I just couldn’t see them getting that much better after playing around .500 last year.

Well, after finishing second in the Big Nine and getting a three-seed in the Section 1AAA tournament (Austin lost to No. 2 St. Thomas Academy Saturday) I’ll tip my hat to Fadness and the Packers.

The most intriguing part of the Packers success was the way their seniors rallied together. Marcus Gunderson and Nate Justice both seemed content to give up shots they took last year to set up their new found scoring machine in junior forward Connor Gunderson. And that’s not an easy thing to do in your senior year (especially if it’s your younger brother doing the scoring).

Marcus Gunderson also showed a strong vigor on the boards and a little extra edge on defense.

Steven Rizzi showed signs last year and was solid in plenty of games, but he found the balance as to when the pop the open three-pointer and when to keep the offensive flow going.

Will Felten was mostly a penetrating scorer last season and he developed into a better passer this year.

Chris Jahr developed into a shot blocking presence and would often wow the crowd with a highlight block. He also became a beast on the boards.

Even seldom used reserve Trent Vandertie always seemed to find a way to hit a three when given court time. Senior reserve Kevin Lyke also showed energy when he got in the game.

In all, the Packers went 18-8, made it to the Section 1AAA semifinals, and had big regular season wins over Lourdes, Winona, and Owatonna.

They were a fun team to watch and they drew a good crowd. It was nice to see Packer Gym full of energy this winter.

Hopefully their season inspires next year’s prospects (the team returns just three rotation players) to work hard to keep the winning ways.