WINONA, Minn. — The similarities are hard to ignore:

• They’re both “Saints.”

• Their colors are red and white.

• They’ll run the same offense.

• And over the past 12 months, both will have been coached by Mike Trewick.

Yet, the Saint Mary’s University men’s basketball coach insists that SMU is not about to change its name to St. John’s South.

No matter how similar the programs are.

“We’ve spent a lot of time early in the year just watching tapes of St. John’s games, because we are going to run the same offense that I ran (as an assistant) at St. John’s,” said Trewick, a longtime assistant at St. John’s, who took over the SMU program from Mark Lovelace, who left after last season to become an assistant at NCAA Division I Loyola. “I was in charge of all the offense (at St. John’s), and my plan is to use the same system here.”

In other words, Trewick isn’t planning to implement any top secret offensive scheme to try and baffle the rest of the MIAC.

In fact, just the opposite – he’s going to use what’s worked in the past, and challenge the rest of the conference to find a way to stop them.

“The only change (from the offense he ran at St. John’s) is that we are going to spread the floor more,” explained Trewick. “We’re going to spread things out and force teams to chase us around.

“We’ve got a lot of very athletic people here, and we’re going to use that athleticism to our advantage.”

Trewick also has a roster full of experienced players, players who have battled through the minefield that is the MIAC schedule.

“One of the nicest things about taking over (at Saint Mary’s) is that the cupboard’s not bare,” explained Trewick, who inherits a team that went 7-18 overall and 6-14 in the conference — but more impressively, went 5-5 in its final 10 games. “Many times, when a new coach comes in, the cupboard’s pretty bare, and you’ve got to spend a year or two restocking. I don’t have to do that here — we return a number of very good players, and we also have a very good recruiting class.”

The players — including All-MIAC honorable-mention selection Jeff Tendall (LeClaire, Iowa / 13.8 ppg, 3.2 rpg), Jimmy Wajda (Minneapolis, Minn. / 7.0 ppg, 2.6 rpg) and Dan Kloak (Elmwood Park, Ill. / 6.8 ppg, 4.0 rpg) — may be there, but it’s going to be up to Trewick to mesh the group into a cohesive unit.

A unit that is shooting for an MIAC playoff berth.

“Our goal is to get into the (MIAC) playoffs,” Trewick explained. “Whether that’s fourth, fifth, sixth … it doesn’t matter — our goal is to get into the playoffs.”

And if the Cardinals can put together two halves of the MIAC schedule like they did the second half a year ago, they will be among the six conference schools still playing on Feb. 22.

“This team went 5-5 the second time through the (MIAC) schedule last year,” Trewick said. “If they would have done that twice, they would have made it — 10-10 made the playoffs last year.”

Ironically, it won’t be Trewick’s offense that gets them an MIAC tournament invitation — but rather their defense.

“Our defense is going to determine how good we are this season,” predicted Trewick. “You don’t win in the MIAC without playing good defense. We’ll score our share of points, I’m not too concerned about that — it’s keeping the other team from scoring that has to be our No. 1 focus.

“I’m excited about what lies ahead, and so are the players,” continued Trewick. “You never really know what to expect until you get out there and play, but I do know one thing — this team is going to work hard and they are going to compete every minute of every game.

“And as a coach, that’s all you can ask.”