But youth doesn’t always equate to inexperience.

That’s the case for the Knights, who had three freshmen start last season in 6-foot-4 guard Adam Loberger, 6-3 guard Ben Pearson and 6-3 guard Ben Vasold. Now with another year of college basketball experience in their arsenal, the sophomore trio will take an even greater leadership role this season.

“I think that all three sophomores who started every game last year as freshmen … the year of experience under their belt, they all have a level of composure and confidence this year that I think is building upon their experience last year,” Knights 10th-year head coach Greg Holzhueter said. “Adam, the thing that he’s growing the most in and showing improvement in is his ability to both score and facilitate the offense. … Pearson is our best defender, so he brings a competitiveness on defense and his length and athleticism really anchors us defensively, so he’s huge in that regard. And then we’re asking Ben Vasold to play point guard for us and try to get us into our offenses and handle pressure from other teams.”

Loberger, who put up 20.3 points and 5.9 rebounds per game last season and finished last as the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year, leads the charge for the Knights. While it’s a small sample size so far with just two games played this regular season, Loberger has led the Knights in both games with 26 points in a season-opening loss to Augsburg and 29 in this past Tuesday’s win over Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota.

Pearson, a 2024 Minnesota Valley Lutheran High School grad who left the MVL boys basketball program third in career points scored with 1,685, averaged 12.4 ppg and 7.5 rpg while shooting 41.4% from the floor and 34.5% from beyond the arc in Year 1 with the Knights.

Pearson also attempted and made an single-season school record of 3-pointers during his final season at MVL, shooting 221 3s and making 96. While he’s not abandoning his 3-point shot this season, Year 2 will see a stronger and more comfortable Pearson willing to drive to the paint more.

“I think last year he just hit a couple of stretches where wasn’t shooting at his normal clip, but one thing I know about Ben is that he’s very much a rhythm shooter, so if he sees the ball go in once or twice, that really feeds his confidence and then he can hit,” Holzhueter said. “Everybody knows about what he did in the playoffs a few years back in high school [46 points in the 2023 Section 2AA finals against Maple River]. He can hit five or six 3s in a row once he gets going.

“I think, for him, the key offensively this year is to get himself to the paint, get layups, get free throws, so he can see the ball go in, and I think that unlocks his confidence shooting from deep as well. I’m really confident that he’s going to shoot a good percentage this year and be an even more efficient basketball player than he was last year.”

Vasold averaged 9.8 ppg last year but just 1.8 assists per game. This year, Holzhueter will look to keep Vasold involved in the offense when it comes to scoring but also turn Vasold into more of a distributor.

The Knights have three seniors this season in Ethan Kjenstad (6-6 forward), Luke Fix (6-4 forward) and Tom Balge (6-2 guard), who is out with a broken hand and could return late December.

“The biggest thing I’m happy with so far with those guys is their leadership,” Holzhueter said. “Ethan is known by all his teammates, he’s a guy who puts more time in the gym and weight room and in training than anybody else does in our program and so his commitment, dedication, his passion for the game of basketball, that’s contagious within our team, so he’s inspired his teammates and does a great job leading in that way. Luke Fix brings a lot of competitive passion and energy and spirit to our team. So both those guys, along with Tom, once we get him back from football and the injury, they’re doing a great job of leading us and helping us kind of push forward this year.”

Kjenstad, out of Aberdeen, South Dakota, played in all 25 games for the Knights last season and started in 14 games, averaging 7.6 ppg and 4.3 rpg. Fix, the Germantown, Wisconsin native, played in all 25 games last season for the Knights, starting in 11 games and averaging 5.5 ppg and 5 rpg.

Like Pearson, Balge is also a New Ulm native but Balge attended Luther Prep High School in Wisconsin. Balge played 22 games last season and started in 14, averaging 9.8 ppg and 3.1 rpg.

Trey Lauber, a 6-4 junior guard, played in all 25 games last season for the Knights and averaged 5 ppg off the bench. He is expected to come off the bench for the Knights again this season but see substantial minutes.

Offensively, Holzhueter said he’s got a lot of good scoring options and the players routinely make the right passes and take the right shots.

“The guys are good at playing in a two-man action, it’s similar to a pick-and-roll, we call it a throw-and-go or a tag action,” Holzhueter said. “So our guys are getting an advantage from that two-man action and then just playing instinctually from there. [In the opener against Augsburg on Nov. 10], the thing that we did really well is we’d get a small advantage and then we had the defense and rotation and guys did a great job of lift-faking at the 3-point line and then attacking downhill and then finding the next open man until we’ve got a great look.

“So the skill level is there, the shooting is there and the intelligence to be able to get an advantage and just play from there, that’s what this group is gonna do really well as we continue to build through the season.”

The Knights have a good amount of quickness and skilled players on the team, but Holzhueter said they’ll need to continue working on handling pressure and improving their defense to keep up with some of the tougher teams in the UMAC this season.

“The thing that brings the most challenge to us is teams that have a lot of athleticism, speed and then put pressure on the basketball,” Holzhueter said. “That’s something that’s just hard to handle at the college level, so that’s the area that we knew we would need to improve on the most — being able to handle a team’s pressure with composure.”

Last season the Knights finished seventh (3-11, UMAC) out of eight teams in the UMAC, which was led by North Central (10-4), Minnesota Morris (10-4), the University of Northwestern (9-5), Bethany Lutheran College (9-5) and the University of Wisconsin-Superior (9-5). BLC ended up winning the UMAC Tournament.

Full of tough teams already, the Knights will be aiming to make the UMAC even more crowded with competition this season.