After 11 winning seasons as the Newton North basketball coach, his methods have not changed much. His passion is the program’s constant.

Otherwise, this team is new.

North lost seven seniors and five starters from last year’s group that went 19-4 and advanced to the Division 1 South semifinals. The list includes the reigning Bay State Conference MVP, Michael Thorpe,  who has moved on to Emerson College, as well as conference league all-stars Luke Westman  and Barry Santana . According to Connolly, the departing players made up 94 percent of last season’s scoring output.

Despite the drastic turnover, the Tigers have quickly adopted their coach’s style — aggressive man-to-man defense, up-tempo offense — and started the season with two heart-thumping victories. They beat Braintree in their first game, 63-60.

“We’re grinding it out, man,” Connolly said after his team edged Walpole in the game’s final 90 seconds. “With this newness right now, the kids have really done a great job buying in. I’m thrilled at the fact that we got two grind-it-out wins.”

There really isn’t any other way to play for Connolly. He asks his players to go at full speed all the time. When the players get fatigued, mass substitutions are the norm. He used 10 players in the first quarter against Walpole.

“We have a lot of guys who can step in,” said senior captain Seamus Bruno . “And when they step in, they bring the same energy as the guys who just came off. When they go in, they don’t care if they’re only going in for one or two plays. For those one or two plays, they’ll go hard. They’ll go 110 percent just to help the team.”

It’s a cliché that has become the Tigers’ creed. Without any returning stars, the Newton North squad is full of players accustomed to fighting for minutes, which has helped Connolly’s system — requiring a hard-nosed, team-over-self approach — take root so quickly.

“This is Coach Connolly’s philosophy: Play hard, play smart, play together,” said senior Korey Mui . “All of us have to buy into the system. We’re 14 strong. Everyone is buying into the system, and we just have to keep playing hard, and listen to Coach. He can go a little crazy, but we all take it in. We’re all very coachable. We all want to get better, and we all trust in Coach.”

Though the Tigers are lacking when it comes to size, the roster is rife with versatility. The tallest player is 6-foot-4 junior center Ezekial Francisco . After him, most players are comfortable at two or three positions, which makes defensive switches a breeze and creates mismatches on offense.

Mui, a 6-foot-2 point-forward, has proven to be the most effective mismatch when North has the ball. A volleyball player in the spring, he has the leaping ability to out-rebound taller players, but he also possesses the ball-handling abilities of a guard.

After taking off last season to focus on academics, Mui, an honors student, has come a long way from when he was a varsity contributor as a sophomore. He finished the Walpole game with a team-high 21 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two blocks.

“It was a rush coming back,” Mui said. “The home-opener, it was that feeling again, that adrenaline pumping. It was a tough adjustment in the beginning, but I’m getting a lot more comfortable now.”

While Mui has led the team in scoring, Bruno has been its barometer for grit. An undersized power forward at 6-foot-2, he is the team’s best rebounder (he pulled down 12 boards against Walpole) and one of its quickest-thinking players — just Connolly’s type.

With shooters like junior ­Liam Bruno (Seamus’s brother) and sophomores Tommy Mobley  and Sam Jefferson  filling out the roster, North has left its mark on the Bay State Confernce early.

“You know that when you play them, it’s going to be a physical game,” said Walpole coach David St. Martin . “It’s going to be an up-and-down game.’’ Connolly “is one of the best in the business, so we know coming in that regardless of how many kids they lost or who they have, it’s going to be a battle.”