CARMEL >> Perhaps if things go as planned on Friday in its regular season league finale, a more celebratory moment will be in store for Carmel.

Or maybe not.

Defending their Pacific Coast Athletic League Gabilan Division boys’ basketball title Wednesday was just the start of what the Padres hope is an extended run into the playoffs.“It’s a different year,” said Carmel coach Kurt Grahl, after a title-clinching 70-46 win over Salinas. “We’re in uncharted territory in so many ways.”

What Grahl was referencing was not having 6-foot-7, 285-pound reigning Gabilan Division Player of the Year Jackson Lloyd, who left school early to enroll at the University of Alabama on a football scholarship.

Lloyd’s presence in the paint left a huge gap in the defending Central Coast Section Division IV champions’ arsenal. In addition, not having Ashton Rees for the season, who had surgery on his toe following football season, cut into the Padres’ depth.

And more than half of Grahl’s roster didn’t arrive until the season was seven weeks old because of a historic football run that led to a CIF State title.

“The guys had a great football run and it was awesome,” Grahl said. “But it has been a lot of integrating guys back in after missing 30 practices — guys trying to get in basketball shape on the fly.”

Yet, the Padres’ overall record of 17-5 is nearly identical to last year’s 19-3 mark at the same point in the season.

“It’s been coming together in staggered steps,” Grahl said. “We subtracted a couple of pieces and moved people around. We had to figure out who we are and get comfortable with that.”

Lloyd was a presence in Grahl’s lineup for three seasons, leading the team in scoring and rebounds during his sophomore and junior seasons.

“It was a big loss,” Grahl said. “Offensively, it all ran through Jackson. We knew opponents would double-team Jackson. It allowed everyone else to play freely.”

However, understanding back in the summer that Lloyd likely wouldn’t be coming back enabled Grahl to devise a game plan around an athletic group of guards, starting with Warren Blut.

The only starter in the lineup who didn’t play football, Blut was asked to enhance his scoring, yet not sacrifice his playmaking skills in distributing the ball. The senior is averaging 20 points and nearly six assists a game.

“We had to change,” Grahl said. “Instead of an inside out team, we’re getting to the paint off the dribble drive. We still try and attack the paint. But we’re doing it by penetrating and kickouts.”

What made the transition a little easier — despite missing the core of his roster — was that most of his players have been with Grahl for at least two seasons.

Simeon Brown, who is averaging 15.1 points a game, is a four-year starter who earned all-county honors last year, while Hudson Rutherford is among the teams’ top perimeter shooters from beyond the 3-point arc.

“No question, we’ve relied on our guards more,” Grahl said. “With this lineup, what we’ve been able to do is put more pressure and press on the perimeter.”

That in turn has seen the Padres — who are 14-2 in their past 16 games — hold 17 opponents under 55 points this year, with Brown leading the team in steals. What did surprise Grahl was the run of eight straight wins.

“Partly, because we could still see that things weren’t clicking,” Grahl said. “We weren’t rotating well with our press. We didn’t have a rhythm and weren’t always on the same page.”

That was exposed two weeks ago when the Padres eight-game winning streak was snapped by Pacific Grove. Two days later they were staring at a 16-point second-half deficit at Alisal.

“It was a great wake-up call,” Grahl said. “Alisal is a tough environment. But what I noticed is no panic. We kept executing, one possession at a time. The moment wasn’t too big.”

What has transpired since is a run of four straight wins, including a nonleague win over Sacred Heart Prep, which it will likely see in the CCS Division IV bracket.

Carmel, which has won three CCS Division IV titles in the past five years, also has notable wins over Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League champion Aptos and Menlo-Atherton.

“If you don’t prepare them, you won’t be able to compete,” Grahl said. “But if these kids hadn’t been here last year, we wouldn’t have been able to put that schedule together.”

While the style of play does look different than the previous three seasons, Grahl understands that there still needs to be a presence in the paint to force opponents to respect the inside game.

As Brooklyn Ashe has played himself into basketball shape after football, the 6-foot-4 senior post has been part of a combination that includes Marcus Togneri, with Ashe closing in on 200 rebounds.

“The two of them have pieced together the middle of our team,” Grahl said. “Brooklyn is pulling down over 10 rebounds a game, which I’ve never had. And he’s been productive inside.”

What Grahl has noticed down the stretch is what’s being preached in practice is starting to show up on the floor in games — that cohesiveness is beginning to take shape.

“For a lot of these guys, there’s an understanding that if you drop a game in the playoffs, it’s not just their season coming to an end, but likely their career,” Grahl said. “We have another level in us.”

It’s not like Carmel hasn’t been battle tested in the Gabilan Division, which will see six teams advance to the postseason, two of which are reigning CCS champions, another a state champion.

“The first goal is to make a run at CCS and see what we can do,” Grahl said. “It would be nice to be placed in the proper division in the Northern California playoffs, if we’re fortunate to get that far.”

While Carmel has three CCS Division IV titles in the past five years, it’s been placed in either Division II or III in the state tournament.

Before the pandemic, the Padres fell in the Northern California Division III finals to St. Mary’s of Berkeley and last year lost on a buzzer beater at Ygnacio Valley of Concord in the quarterfinals.

“Losing on a 38-foot runner last year was tough,” Grahl said.

Assuming The King’s Academy of Sunnyvale is placed into the Open Division in next Wednesday’s CCS seeding meeting, Carmel will likely earn the No. 1 seed in Division IV, which would mean a 10-day layoff between games.

“I don’t like that,” Grahl said. “That’s a lot of time to practice at this stage of the season. They’ve heard our voices for quite a while. They get a little restless. You don’t want to lose your edge.”