When the ball tips off tonight, there will be a sense of familiarity for the Northern State men’s basketball team as its season gets underway.

The Wolves, who host Chadron State at 6 this evening at Wachs Arena, return three proven performers from a year ago in seniors Joshua Book, Tobi Obiora, and Marshawn Smith.

“They show up every day. They care a lot. They’re great teammates. They work hard,” said NSU coach Matt Wilber. “They’re our hardest workers, there’s no doubt about it. They’re our most competitive players day in and day out.”

None of the three are even remotely close to being from South Dakota, but have found a home in Aberdeen.

“We’re lucky to have those guys here. They love Northern,” Wilber said. “They couldn’t be farther away from Aberdeen. You’ve got one of them from New Zealand (Book), another one from the Netherlands (Obiora), and the other one from the Bay Area (Smith).”

Not only will that trio bring stability, Wilber said he feels a bit more comfortable heading into his second season with the Wolves, after going through his first year with the program last year.

“Everything was a first time. First practice after a win. First practice after a loss,” Wilber said. “All of the circumstantial things you can have. This year that’s different.”

Northern will feature a variety of new players this season, including three tranfers. One is 6-foot-8 Nic Book, Joshua’s brother.

“He’s going to be a factor,” Wilber said. “He’s a big man. He can score. … He’ll be in the starting lineup and playing a lot of minutes.”

Other transfers include Nic Anthony and Porter Ihnen.

The Wolves also have eight freshmen on the roster including the likes of Avery Christensen, Mason Witt, Will Kuhl, Dane Danielson, Cooper Goodbary, and Jackson Wadsworth.

“They’re going to have to play,” Wilber said.

The coach noted that it can be a big jump going from high school to playing college basketball.

“Every kid is going to have a transition, it’s just a matter of how quick that transition is going to happen, because everybody’s going to go from, hey, I’m feeling pretty good about this to, I might be the worst player in the gym today,” Wilber said. “They all experience it, and then it’s just how quick can they adjust to it.”

The Wolves showed major progress last season after having their worst record in school history two years ago. Wilber said the bar will be continue to go higher in the near future.

“I told our guys, nobody’s getting patted on the back for 12-17 anymore up here gentlemen,” Wilber said. “There was a short window for that.”

The Wolves were picked to finish 10th in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference preseason coaches poll. Wilber said he doesn’t pay much attention to things like that.

“I just don’t put a lot of stock into it,” Wilber said, “because year to year things can happen.”

Wilber said he doesn’t talk much about goals, either, although they have been established.

“I don’t get caught up into goals. We have them. We have them,” Wilber said. “Last year we didn’t win a non-conference game. Didn’t win one. That’s one of the goals. We have a chance right away to get that done. There’s a lot of things that we want do to and get done this year.”