Equal Time: Chris Lowery Articles

[LastWarrior]

Equal time for the candidates... 

http://www.hoopwise.com/?p=233

  5 Questions (+2) With SIU's Chris Lowery

In the 10 seasons that Chris Lowery has been a part of the Southern Illinois basketball program — 4 as a player, 3 as an assistant, and now 3 as head coach — the Salukis have played in the postseason...10 freaking times! Lowery has been named coach of the year in the Valley in two of his first three years on the job, while SIU has gone to six straight NCAA Tournaments and compiled a staggering 79-3 home record — a best in the nation home winning percentage (.963) during that span. Lowery is quick to give credit to both his players and predecessors when promoting the Saluki way (as he should) but make no mistake...there's a reason why he recently signed a deal that pays him about sen-fiddy a year — 750k per year — he's damn good. This season SIU embarks on a schedule that will see 15 of their games televised, as well as a home visit from Indiana. I had to go with seven questions because five wasn't enough. Enjoy.

HoopWise: Your scheduling philosophy is awesome in that you insist on teams always returning games to SIU Arena. Explain why you do that, both from an RPI perspective and a fan perspective?

Chris Lowery — The number one thing people have to understand is we didn't build this program by playing one and dones. We schedule teams that look like they'll compete for their league titles and we don't allow ourselves to be bought. Our fans deserve to see us play good teams when we play at home. RPI wise its proven to be an intelligent way to schedule — last year we had an RPI of 9 and in the last several years we've maintained a top-25 RPI.

HoopWise: On 6/29/07 you hosted an event at Wrigley Field in Chicago called Dawgs on the Rooftop during a Cubs game against the Giants. Explain the thought behind the event and was it a success for the program?

Chris Lowery — We wanted to reach out to our fans outside of Carbondale because we have a following in other communities as well, especially in Chicago with alumni there. It was a great success as it sold out in a couple of days and it had to help that Barry Bonds was chasing the home run record at the time!

Hoopwise: What are some of the challenges you see Randal Falker (SIU's returning star power forward) facing this year with the loss of some of his veteran teammates?

Chris Lowery — Randal can be dominant if one man is covering him, his challenge is playing better against the double-team because sometimes he can turn it over when doubled. I think Randal will be fine but the real challenge will be on the guys surrounding him — who's going to step up and knock down shots.

HoopWise: Do you kind of let your players figure out how they want to play offensively, I know you're going to guard the snot out of them on defense but what's the thought on offense?

Chris Lowery — We run motion so we're not always sure when or where the shots going to come. Last year we were incredibly efficient in the last 10 seconds of the shot clock and when you turn that around and know that we're gonna guard you for probably 30 seconds on every possession...all of a sudden we've totally changed the game and made you play the way we want to. That's huge in any game and that's why you saw us run away with so many games last year, we just wore teams down.

HoopWise: How important is knowing when to redshirt a kid and stacking your classes in the process of building a program that's consistently winning year in and year out?

Chris Lowery – It's huge, I can't stress how important it is. We never have huge classes graduate, we don't have the type of kid that's leaving early and we have a lot of fourth and fifth year kids. We talked about Randal before and he's a great example — going into his final year he's played in 7 NCAA tournament games I think. Kids look at our program and see the last two classes have graduated with 100+ wins and Randal has a chance to surpass that as well. It's really important to stack the classes. Our kids might play against younger All Americans but the experience they have is invaluable.

HoopWise: You guys will be on TV 15 times this season — how much work went into getting to this point and how do you sustain it?

Chris Lowery — To keep it going you gotta win, you know that (laughing)! One thing that's big is people see Coach Weber at Illinois and Matt Painter at Purdue and myself doing well here and success breeds success. Our family's strong man! Saluki basketball is national and that's a huge thing in terms of keeping it going.

HoopWise: One last question and I'll let you go — Talk aout the importance of recruiting the Saint Louis metro area? I know you have players from Chicago and Indiana but you've had a lot of success with the players you've plucked out of Saint Louis. Is that something you're committed to — recruiting that area?

Chris Lowery — Absolutely. One, our conference tournament is there so that gives us great exposure to the players in that area. Two, it's the closest metro area to Carbondale (about 1 hr and 45 minutes away) and the talent base there is always strong. We're going to continue to work and cultivate good relationships in that area. What's key for us is that the kids we've had from there have all had success here, they've all started and contributed to our success so when they go back home they talk good about Saluki basketball. You need good players to go back there and talk good about your program if you want to have success recruiting there and we've been fortunate that's been the case with our guys from St Louis.

HoopWise: Chris, thanks so much and I'll hit you up again during the season if that's okay?

Chris Lowery – thank you man, I appreciate it.


http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2007/03/24/sportsextra/doc46048ba50629a493959737.txt

SIU's Lowery a hot commodity
By Jim Suhr
Associated Press Writer
Advertisement

Amid all the questions of what might have been in the wake of a season-ending loss to Kansas, Southern Illinois coach Chris Lowery had plenty of reasons to feel puffed up about how far his Salukis came this season.

A school-record 29 wins. The program's highest seed ever in the NCAA tournament, not to mention a sixth-straight berth in that yearly spectacle. An ascent to No. 11 in The Associated Press poll, the loftiest ranking in the program's history. A fifth Missouri Valley Conference regular-season title in the past six seasons.

Lowery and his charges would have loved to have added the school's first-ever trip to the NCAA tournament's round of eight to the list. But the top-seeded Jayhawks dashed that, edging fourth-seeded Southern 61-58 in the West Regional semifinals Thursday night in San Jose, Calif.

The loss marked the end to the collegiate playing careers of senior guards Jamaal Tatum and Tony Young, the linchpins of a smothering Saluki defense that was among the stingiest in the country.

The nagging question now: Will Lowery be leaving his alma mater, too?

Southern's run through its league and to the school's third appearance in the NCAA tournament's round of 16 triggered widespread interest in Lowery, at 34 the youngest coach in the event's field. And though he has two years left on his contact in Carbondale, Ill., that hasn't stopped his name from being tossed around with various coaching vacancies at bigger, higher-profile schools.

In the run-up to the Kansas game, Lowery waved off questions about his future at Southern, saying his immediate priority was prepping for the Jayhawks. He wouldn't discuss it after Thursday night's loss, either.

"I'm the coach of Southern Illinois right now. That's the most important thing," said Lowery, the reigning Missouri Valley coach of the year — an award he now has won twice in his three seasons guiding Southern, where he has gone 78-26.

The apparent coveting of Lowery hasn't been lost on Tatum or the coach's boss, Saluki athletics director Mario Moccia.

"I know a lot of schools are going to be trying to get him right now," Tatum, the Missouri Valley player of the year, told reporters Thursday night after the Salukis lost for just the second time in 17 games. But, said Tatum, "He ain't going nowhere. Ain't that right, Mario?"

Moccia, sitting nearby, simply shrugged and smiled.

During the Missouri Valley tournament earlier this month, Moccia made clear his chief missions included keeping Lowery put "for a long time."

"The university is going to make the best effort we can financially to keep Chris around," Moccia said then, realizing that a bigger school can outbid Southern. But he hopes a competitive financial package, combined with Lowery's ties as an alumnus of the school where he played point guard for three Saluki teams that made it to the NCAA tournament in the mid-1990s, can persuade him to stick around.

This week, Moccia knew Lowery was commanding attention from possible suitors.

"From everything I read, the barbarians seem to be at the gate — just waiting for that (season-ending) loss to try to break through the wall," Moccia, Southern's AD since last August, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Lowery, whose relationship with Moccia includes regular exchanges of text messages, told the newspaper that he and his boss "want to see this thing go as far as it can, and it's going to take both of us to make that happen."

Still, the Post-Dispatch reported, Moccia was assembling a list of possible replacements to Lowery if he's lured away. Moccia said there had been no formal negotiations between Lowery and Southern, where he said the athletic department needed to "come up with an offer and take a stand."

Moccia and Lowery, who were returning with the team from California on Friday, did not immediately return telephone messages left at their offices.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Lowery

[ChicosBailBonds]

I'd only say this about Lowery, if you didn't like Crean I think you'll hate Lowery.  Talk about a team that was picked to do a lot of things this year and fell flat.  The MVC wasn't even as good as it normally is either.

[LastWarrior]

I'd only say this about Lowery, if you didn't like Crean I think you'll hate Lowery.  Talk about a team that was picked to do a lot of things this year and fell flat.  The MVC wasn't even as good as it normally is either.

Not sure of the point of that post Chicos?    I loved Crean does that mean I'll love Lowery even more?  Also, let's not forget that MU had very high expectations this year and we didn't quite live up to those either.

[thatman32]

Lowery has actually been a better coach then crean the last 4 years.  If you don't think so then look at their records. 

Also Lowery knows how to use big men.  If you saw SIU play(maybe not this year) you would know that the post players he has would make any Marquette fan envious.  In addition, he integrates them into his motion offense.  Wait a second he doesn't run 'pro sets' or run a 'attack offense' so that is why you don't like him!  We had great success with those 'pro sets'!!

[SCWarrior]

"Lowery has actually been a better coach then crean the last 4 years.  If you don't think so then look at their records."

While I agree Lowery is a good coach, I don't think you can make this blanket statement.  I don't think you can compare the MVC to the Big East.  Lowery has had a lot of success at SIU, but before we give him a tag as a better coach we need to be able to compare apples to apples.