A program in shambles and a coach looking for a second chance hope to begin restoring each other's reputation this season at Southeast Missouri State.

Neither the Redhawks nor their new coach, Dickey Nutt, blames their fellow coaches for picking them to finish last in the Ohio Valley Conference. SEMO is coming off a season in which it finished 3-27 overall, winless in the OVC.

The deeper damage occurred before the start of last season, when the NCAA put the program on probation through 2013 and forced it to vacate 11 victories in the 2007-08 season because of major and secondary violations under former coach Scott Edgar. Placed on leave in October and fired in December, Edgar was replaced by Zac Roman.

Thus, the Redhawks' priority is to build faith in one another and with their fan base around Cape Girardeau.

"We want to put a team out here that people can relate to and be proud of," Nutt told reporters last month at the conference's media day. "There's no shortcuts. We're not going to sacrifice character for better talent."

The season also is a new beginning for Nutt, the brother of Houston Nutt, football coach at Mississippi, and the son of Houston Nutt Sr., who played basketball for both Adolph Rupp and Henry Iba. Dickey Nutt coached nearly 13 years at Arkansas State and was three victories short of setting a school record for career wins when he was fired in February 2008. He built a record of 189-187 and made one appearance in the NCAA Tournament but was fired in midseason after Arkansas State had lost seven consecutive games to its rivals in the Sunbelt Conference.

Nutt said the success of this year's team starts with four returnees, who have had three coaches in less than two years. Three of the four were starters, most notably forward Jajuan Maxwell, who averaged 7.2 points and 6.0 rebounds.

"We have to be more accountable on the basketball floor. They have accepted that," Nutt said. "They're starving for success, and hopefully we'll be able to have some of that."

The Redhawks will also have 11 newcomers, seven of whom have played at other colleges, making the transition from a run-and-shoot game to a defense-first philosophy a bit easier. Among them is Leon Powell, who played at Vashon.

"We really try to hang our hat on the defensive side of the floor," Nutt said. "We try to put a lot of pressure on the ball and make it unbearable for a guy to be floating out there, dribbling the basketball."

The return to respectability will be tougher than it could have been, since Nutt has scheduled games against such opponents as SIU-Carbondale, Memphis and the Redhawks' opponent today, St. Louis University.

"We take the chance of getting thumped and it could work against us, but we need to develop presence in those areas," Nutt said."We were at a crossroads here, and I thought the best thing to do was to upgrade the schedule and get people in here to show them that we're a team that they want to follow."