Things are looking very different for the Riverland men’s basketball team as they prepare for the upcoming season.

They return just one player who played significant minutes last season and they’ll turn to interim head coach Scott Koenigs, who takes over after former coach Dan Swift resigned before the season.

Koenigs was an assistant coach for RCC up until last year, and two players are coming back from that team — Jeff Clark-Neil and Taylor Morgan.

Morgan said the coaching change was tough to deal with so close to start of the season.

“It hit a lot of people hard, but we’re coming together as a team and we’re trying to take care of business on the court. That’s the only thing that matters right now,” he said. “Everything’s going to have to be a team effort, on every possession.”

The Blue Devils will be vastly undersized as they have just two players over 6-foot-3 inches. They’ll also be missing some key players early on as a few players will be ineligible, including their main returnee Denzel Smith, who averaged 13 points and 7 rebounds as a freshman.

RCC will likely have nine players on the roster until the semester break.

“These guys were thrown into a tough situation and they’ve adjusted well,” Koenigs said. “There isn’t any discipline issues anymore and they’re checking the attitudes at the door.”

Koenigs hopes RCC can make up for its lack of height with their speed and athleticism. He said Zach Bunch, a 6-2 guard from Kenosha, Wis., and Keith Thames, a 5-7 guard from Chicago, Illinois, should chip in as well as Morgan, who is from Cripple Creek, Colo. and Clark-Neal, who is from St. Paul, Minn.

“We need to be a team that really pushes the basketball up the floor,” Koenigs said. “This is a pretty athletic team and we’re going to try and force the issue and press.”

RCC already got off to a strong start when it won the alumni game for the first time in five years. They held on to an 86-83 win as Smith poured in 29 points.

Koenigs said his team must take care of the ball.

“They hear me say a million times, make the good pass not the great pass,” Koenigs said. “I want to see the three good passes in a row instead of trying to make the pass that gets the crowd off their feet.”

While Koenigs, who is the head coach of the RCC baseball team, took the basketball coaching job on an interim basis, he’s considering taking on the position full time.

He just wants to make sure it doesn’t interfere with his baseball program.

“When I first took this job it was definitely in the interim, but I’m enjoying the heck out of it and I’m a basketball coach at heart,” Koenigs said. “Chances are pretty good I’d want to come back and bring in some of my own recruits.”

RCC will open its season at the Minnesota West Classic Friday and Saturday in Worthington, Minn.

The Blue Devils will open their home schedule Nov. 9 against NIACC at 6 p.m.