WINONA, Minn. — Saint Mary’s University men’s basketball coach Mark Lovelace didn’t have any trouble summing up the upcoming season.

In fact, the first-year head coach needed just one word: New.

• New coach.

• New mind-set.

• New philosophy.

• New habits.

• New defensive approach.

• Even a new floor.

Now all Lovelace has to do is figure out how to fit all the pieces together.

“It’s been a bit of an adjustment — both for myself and the players,” said Lovelace, who took over for Bob Biebel, who stepped down after last season. “When I was at Lewis (where he spent several years as the Flyers’ No. 1 assistant), I got to be the friendly assistant all the time. Now, I’ve got to be the one to put the hammer down.”
Not that he’s complaining.

“It’s been a big adjustment, being the head guy,” Lovelace said. “But I learned a lot from Coach Whitesell (at Lewis) — he taught me the importance of good communication, and being able to separate my on-court duties from my off-court ones.”

Lovelace’s biggest on-court duty, is finding a way to transform the Cardinals from the 2-23 team of a year ago, into a new-and-improved version this year.

“Our main focus right now has been trying to build new habits — both in the classroom and on the basketball court,” said Lovelace, whose team opens its season with back-to-back road games on Nov. 21 at Winona State and Nov. 29 at UW-La Crosse, before christening its new home floor against Hamline on Dec. 3. “Not that Coach Biebel taught bad habits, but I have a different philosophy and a different way of doing things that these guys need to get used to.

“Everyone’s priorities are going to be a little different this year.”
And the Cardinals’ new No. 1 priority is defense.

Defense, defense, defense — that’s Lovelace’s second-most popular word behind ‘new.’

“Our focus right now is on the defensive end — if we are going to be a successful team, we have to be better defensively,” said Lovelace, who is inheriting a team that not only allowed 73.7 points per game a year ago, but also graduated its top four scorers “We may struggle a bit offensively early on because of our defensive focus, but we as a coaching staff feel that’s a sacrifice we’re willing to make to improve down the road.”

Speaking of down the road … .

Lovelace knows that turning around an SMU program that hasn’t had a winning season since 1984-85 is no easy task — but he also feels like his team has already taken steps in the right direction.

Baby steps.

“We’re slowly making progress,” Lovelace said. “There are some days when everything seems to be clicking, and then there are other days — when you realize there’s still a lot of work to be done.”
Which is why Lovelace isn’t going to pay much attention to wins and losses.

“I’ve never been the type of coach who puts a lot of stock in that,” explained Lovelace. “What we are doing now, in the preseason, is just part of a process — a process that is going to take time. We’re focusing on the little things — making sure we have one thing down pat before we move on to another.

“Our goal is to playing our best ball in mid-January and into February. That’s when we’ll sit down and assess where we are at and what we’ve accomplished to that point.”