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He knows their names. He knows their faces. But does first-year Lobos coach Steve Alford really know their game?

And will the handful of talent left for Alford by Ritchie McKay blend with the five new Lobos and mesh into the Alford system of Iowa basketball, now called Lobos basketball?

Well, they don't have any choice. It's Alford's way or take a seat.

"We won't compromise what we believe in," Alford said. "We have a system, we have a style, and the players have to buy into it.

"We'll show them our system, and they have to learn it and do it and if they can't, we'll find somebody else who can."

Alford has never coached any of his 13 University of New Mexico Lobos in a Mountain West Conference basketball game, but he's not alone.

The Mountain West has five first-year coaches on the men's side - Alford, Air Force's Jeff Reynolds, Colorado State's Tim Miles, Utah's Jim Boylen and Wyoming's Heath Schroyer.

They all face the same task confronted by Alford - build a successful program but don't throw away the 2007-08 season.

But building a cohesive team within a first-year program isn't an easy task.

You have to learn your players from the ground up.

Your players have to figure out the coach from the growl down.

"It's challenging," said senior J.R. Giddens. "You don't know him. You don't know his system, his plays, his demeanor.

"I think the smart thing for us is to go out there and play hard and do exactly what he says. If he says run hard, you run hard. If he says go there, you go there."

One Lobo on the same page with Alford is Craig Neal, UNM's associate head coach, who was with Alford for three seasons at Iowa. Neal said one hurdle with a first-year program is not having upperclassmen who know your system and can help guide the younger players.

"The coaches are showing everybody everything," Neal said. "There are no veterans to show the other guys what we are doing.

"We are going to do what we've been doing in the past, but right now they feel like baby steps. It requires more patience because we have 13 new kids who have never been around you. The first year is a growing-pain type of year."

Going into the season, Alford's system appears to be motion offense, some triangle stuff inside, some basic set plays for the posts. On defense, it's in-your-face, half-court man-to-man.

Alford said he hopes to work on certain things for a limited amount of time and then move on.

"We want to get in as much as we can as fast as we can, but we don't want to be average at it," he said. "We have to learn a lot of things on the fly - including getting to know the players. In coaching, you have to know who you pat on the back, who you kick in the butt, who you leave alone."

Craig also says you strive to win and don't take the first year off because it's considered a honeymoon period with the Lobos community.

"This is an exciting time," Neal said. "But there also is apprehension, some anxiety and some heat, because you want to get off on the right foot and have some success."