When Travis Mays took over as head coach of the SMU women’s basketball team, things had to change. The Mustangs were coming off a 2015-16 season in which they finished with a record of 7-23. He wanted the team to start to reflect his personality, to play like he did as a star guard at the University of Texas. He expected his new team to play feverish defense, to expend every ounce of energy chasing each and every loose ball, and to improve performance on both ends of the court through better communication.

First-year head coach Travis Mays will get a boost from the return of redshirt guard Kiara Perry, who missed the 2015-16 season because of injury (photo by SMU athletics).

Seeking veteran contributions in his first year on the Hilltop, Mays signed four transfers. But perhaps the biggest addition will be a player who already was in place.

Guard Kiara Perry returns to the lineup after missing all of last season after undergoing surgery to repair a couple of bulging discs in her back. Her absence last year cost the Mustangs their fourth-leading scorer from the previous season, as well as perhaps their best defender. Her surgery in late June kept her off the court until December, when she began easing her way back into workouts with her teammates. For the rest of the season, she was a practice player as her team struggled through a long season. Watching without being able to contribute was excruciating.

“It was really tough (to watch), just because of the simple fact that I wanted to help them out,” she said. “I wanted to be a part of the team — on the court.”

Her time out of the lineup made Perry a more observant student of the game and tested her patience.

“I watched more, and in my perspective, I feel like I learned a lot,” Perry said. “It gave me a lot of patience. I had to sit back and support my teammates, and they helped me become a better teammate.”

With a new coaching staff, every player, in a sense, is in her first year. Mays, however, said Perry is performing in workouts like a polished veteran.

“One word: she looks ‘fantastic,’” Mays said when asked about Perry’s adjustment to his systems. “She looks fantastic, because she plays and can not think about anything. She’s explosive, she’s aggressive, she’s a natural competitor who wants to be on the floor more than anything. She hates making mistakes. She’s ready. You can tell she has been missing it, and that she wants to be out there.”

The Mustangs open their season at 11:30 a.m. Friday with a home game against Texas State. If it were up to Perry, she would be doing every drill in every workout, but her coach is being cautious with his demands on her because of her back.

“It’s killing her now, because I don’t have her take the same reps as everyone else — maybe twice a week with contact,” Mays said. “She doesn’t like that, but when I put her out there, she’s ready to go. But I’ve got to keep her fresh, so I’m treating her like an old vet, because I know what she’s capable of.”

Mays stopped short of saying he will limit Perry’s minutes, but said that if a game appears to be decided, he will curtail her time on the floor in order to increase the chance of her being available and healthy at the end of the season, as well as at the beginning. Perry’s understanding of the Mustangs’ new systems, Mays said, affords him that luxury.

“If we’re loading up (with a big lead), yes … because I want to have her all season long,” Mays said. “I don’t want to ‘chase the wins’ and not have her go through the entire season. I don’t want to put her in a situation where it’s hurting her, so if it comes to that, and our trainer says we probably need to back off, she may just be a player that just plays games, and doesn’t practice as much. She’s that good — she has that good a feel for what it is that we’re doing.”

Mays said his team, obviously, has a long way to go before learning everything he and his staff are teaching and then translating that information to winning performances. On the other hand, he has seen considerable signs of optimism. Last year, forward Alicia Froling and guard McKenzie Adams were the Mustangs’ leaders by most measures, including the fact that they were the only two players on the roster to record double-digit scoring averages.

The Mustangs’ first-year coach said it’s too early to identify the leaders of this year’s team. Froling and Adams clearly are among those leaders, as is Perry. There will be ups and downs as the team and its new coaches learn each other. Perhaps most encouraging, he said, is the performance by the rest of the Mustangs as the 2016-17 season approaches.

“I will say this: I wouldn’t say that (Adams and Froling) have separated from the pack — I would say the pack has come closer to them,” Mays said. “They may have been the hardest workers and had separation last year, but now there’s not that much separation. The rest have started to catch up to them. They have the effort — now we just have got to get them to play together.”

Mays and his team are just days away from the start of their first season together. That isn’t enough time for him and his staff to teach everything they want to impart to their new team. But Mays said he knows that, and came in expecting that the teaching would be an ongoing process.

“I figure that process of continuing to teach, that’s going to happen all year long. That’s how I’m going to change the culture,” he said. “If I only prepare for the next game, I’m chasing wins, and that doesn’t make the team better. I think if we teach, and stay the course of the process, we’ll get the wins.”