t’s a new year for the St. Mary’s University Men’s basketball team- and head coach Dane Morris couldn’t be more ready.

Morris is ready to take what he learned in his first season with the Lightning, a season in which his team went 3-21, and make a push for the playoffs this time around.

After seven years as an assistant coach with the SAIT Trojans men’s basketball program, Morris knew there would be a steep learning curve when he assumed his first head coaching job at St Mary’s last season, and that 2014-15 would be riddled with growing pains

“In terms of last year, no we didn’t win as many games as we wanted to but we competed every game and the players we had gave us everything they had,” said Morris. “I also felt like we had to take a step backwards to take two steps forward. So in that sense we (the coaching staff) started from scratch and started implementing a new culture; culture being things we accept and don’t accept in terms of basketball, the classroom, and community involvement.’’