Chris Lowery Gettin' Interactive

Once upon a time, SIU men's basketball coach Chris Lowery was apprehensive about Twitter, to say the least.  In an interview before I went mainstream, Lowery said he was unsure about Twitter because he hadn't looked much into it.  He knew its pros and cons, but was unsure whether or not he would add the social networking tool.

Now, it seems as if you can't get the guy off the thing.

Lowery's latest trips into the Twitterverse ask Saluki fans several questions.

• Saluki fans- what is your most memorable moment at SIU Arena?8:52 AM Nov 9th from web 
• Saluki fans- who should start in the home opener?10:33 PM Nov 8th from web  
• Saluki fans- who has been your favorite player through the exhibition games?6:04 PM Nov 8th from web

Some have brought it to the attention of TBDS, asking whether or not a man making $750,000 a year should be asking his followers to do his job for him.  Those people, in my humble opinion, really must be looking for straws to pick in regard to Lowery's coaching ability.

He's frowned upon when he looks like a big meanie.  He loosens up, and he still gets ridiculed.  We've played two exhibition games and people ask these stupid questions.

Now, I know some of them were made in jest.  Still, what does it hurt for the coach to ask his fans who they would like in the starting five on opening night?  It hurts nothing.  Except maybe your fingers if you type too quickly.

Oh, and for what it's worth, here would be my starting five after two preseason games.

1. Dillard
2. T. Freeman
3. Bocot
   
4. Fay
5. Evans
   

That's right, Nick Evans' play has put him in my projected starting five.  In 44 minutes of play, Evans has scored 19 points, 13 rebounds and is shooting 8 of 16 from the field.  Booker has struggled.  He's hit only two of his eight field goal attempts in and grabbed three rebounds in his 29 minutes of playing time.  I'm sure hurting his head in Saturday's win against Southern Indiana compounded matters, as well.

It wouldn't surprise me to see Evans in the starting line-up on Saturday night.  He certainly has earned it through the exhibition season.


And while I have the forum, I might as well answer Coach Lowery's other questions.


Favorite Player Through Preseason: Kendal Brown-Surles.


It's almost a shame that Brown-Surles didn't come in as hyped as the previous class of Saluki freshmen, because he is equally as talented.  Through two exhibition games, KBS seems to fit the mold of your prototypical Southern guard.  He values the ball on offense (4 assists, 1 turnover in 36 minutes) and pressures it on defense (8 steals).  He's not quick ... he's just flat-out fast.


Everyone knows that I hate making projections after exhibition games, especially when it comes to college kids.  (Some of you will remember the pre-TBDS days when I proclaimed Matt Shaw as MVC POY, Carlton Fay FOY and Randal Falker Sixth Man of the Year after a Saluki game -- albeit tongue in cheek.)  But there is no discounting the effort Brown-Surles puts on the floor.  You can see it in the way he plays.  And the fact of the matter is, effort always translates no matter who you play.


Favorite SIU Arena Moment:  Oh, so many to choose from.


And since there are several, I'll pick my top three-and-a-half.

1.  My 1st Creighton Game.  As a freshman, I attended every home game while school was in session, but my first Dawg Pound experience was the Creighton game.


I remember the weekend very well.  Valentine's Day was around the corner and my roommate had decided that trying to make a girl that was six hours away his girlfriend was more important than the Valley's most intense rivalry.  (Note: maybe that's why I'm still single -- no I don't regret my decisions.)  Anyway, I yelled, screamed and heckled as the Maroon & White defeated the evil Creighton Swallows Bluejays.  And in the end, I ate the chocolate covered strawberries my roommie had made for his potential lover, but had left behind.


Epic win?


2.  My Last Creighton Game (as a fan).  Who can ever forget the ESPN GameDay game?  That whole day was an experience.  Again, that was during the pre-TBDS days.  The 48-44 win for SIU yielded plenty of highlights.  Including the now-infamous picture with Erin Andrews, who complimented my sign, autographed it and then posed for a picture.

We won't ever speak of the day in which the last time I saw SIU and Creighton square off at the SIU Arena.  Worst.  Day.  Ever.  On more than one account.



3.  "The Media Pick-up Game."  It is a day that still stands as one of my favorite moments as a Saluki beat writer.  Southern had an extended film session, pushing back the start of practice.  Rather than leave and return for interviews, media members were allowed to pick up a ball and have a brief shoot around before the players and coaching staff took the floor.


We took advantage of the opportunity, of course.  So, it was Southern Illinoisan beat writer Todd Hefferman, a pair of TV guys whose names I always seem to forget.  Oh, and Phil Oskilanec -- now at ESPN Radio -- was there too. 


We shot freely.  Then we attempted to do the Giant City Chicken game. (Lay up, free throw, 3 pointer in 30 seconds) and i was the only one to not make his three. (FAIL, I know).  But what I will claim is that in our game of 21, yours truly scored a few buckets, none more clutch than his drive to the lane while being fouled by Todd.  Of course, you don't call fouls in 21, but he got me across the arm pretty good.  He won't admit it, but I wouldn't expect him to.  He's followed Saluki basketball long enough to know it's not a foul unless there's blood or until the refs blow the whistle -- whichever comes first.



I hope answering these questions was helpful to Coach Lowery.  Maybe I'll forward him this blog post.  Or maybe someone can do it for me.

Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow: Salukis Dismiss Sophomore Guard

Two days after the Southern Illinois University men's basketball team tipped off its season with its annual Maroon Madness, the team finds itself without an integral member of the team.

Sophomore guard Ryan Hare was dismissed from the team according to a release via the school's Web site on Sunday night.  Hare averaged 7.5 points per game and started 26 of the team's 31 games as a freshman.  In September, Hare was suspended after being arrested and charged with felony battery and trespassing.

TBDS sources have informed the blog that the charges stemmed from a fight that might be related to a domestic issue.  Hare was given a second chance, but citing a violation of team rules (also known as breaking whatever rules Coach Lowery laid down after the suspension) Hare was dismissed and has left the SIU Carbondale campus.

Silence Surrounds Saluki Hoops Verbals

It's October 1, do you know where your verbals are?

Surprisingly for the Southern Illinois University men's basketball team, they are not anywhere to be found at this point.  Signing day is a little more than a month away and there has yet to been a peep from anyone anywhere in regard to the Class of 2010.

Unless the Salukis suffer from a mid-season departure, which would be very surprising at this point, the team will only have one available scholarship as Iowa transfer Tony Freeman is the squad's only senior.

In regard to the Class of 2010, I get asked about four players in particular.  Your precious answers are after the jump.

Hare's Legal Trouble Comes At Bad Time For Optimistic Lowery

It was only a few weeks ago when things were looking bright for Saluki hoops.

Blessed with good timing, yours truly was able to sit down with Southern Illinois men's basketball head coach Chris Lowery a few weeks ago in Carrier Mills, Ill.  Lowery was there to speak to youngsters and encourage them to strive to be their best and be on their best behavior for the upcoming school year.

Afterward, I caught up with Lowery and chatted about everything from old times on the Saluki beat, our favorite Michael Jordan memories ... and eventually the future of Saluki basketball.

The SIU front man seemed to express plenty of optimism in regard to the 2009-10 team.  Sure, it lost senior leader Bryan Mullins.  But the team was also rid of distractions, controversy and other in-house issues that plagued the team during a disappointing 13-18 season. 

After a summer that saw improvements by players such as Kevin Dillard and Nick Evans on the court and in the weight room, you couldn't blame Lowery for feeling good about an upcoming season with a favorable schedule that will feature 17 home games on the docket.

And then guard Ryan Hare found himself in trouble with the law. 

Saluki Basketball Guard Ryan Hare Suspended Indefinitely

It is never fun when a team must deal with legal troubles on the outside. The Southern Illinois University men’s basketball team was known to be a young squad last year, and that was an excuse on the court.

Unfortunately, the youth took another turn over the weekend as sophomore guard Ryan Hare was arrested for aggravated battery and criminal trespassing.

Head Coach Chris Lowery announced today that Hare has been suspended indefinitely. Hare was a key performer last year, with 26 starts and appearances in every game during his freshman year.

Lowery's twitter update reads, "It is always tough when you have to discipline people in your family. The most important thing is that a lesson is learned from it."

Hare was a bigger guard, with the ability to get to the rim despite not being as quick as some people. He was also able to use his long arms on defense, and was one of the better Saluki defenders a year ago…something that is very important in Coach Lowery’s system.

Carbondale police said they responded to a fight at 9:20 am on Saturday. Hare was sent to Jackson County Jail. The victim, an acquaintance of Hare, was treated at Memorial Hospital of Carbondale and released.

Indefinitely can mean a lot of things. Right now, Hare has bigger troubles than just basketball. I wish him, his family and the team the best as they get through this. The 20-year-old Hare is still maturing, and unfortunately, this is a step backwards in the process.

Jamaal Tatum, a former star guard under Lowery, was once charged with a DUI. Tatum was very remorseful and learned from the mistake. He became one of SIU's leaders on and off the court.

Now, a young Hare brings another legal issue to the team. Again, basketball is not the top priority right now. We still do not have all the details, but there are enough there for Lowery to suspend his key performer indefinitely.

Cleaning Out The Inbox: Five Things That Needed To Be Addressed

Our TBDS intern checks the mail.

You probably thought your computer was broken.

There was so much to blog about this weekend, and all yours truly could muster up is the following:

• SIU was good, but not good enough.
• Sam Bradford and Richard Seymour are screwed in their own respective ways. 

So, this is me, remembering that I have a blog, cleaning out my inbox.

TBDS Late Night: It's Friday. Get The F*** Out While It's Still Nice Outside

Often times, SIU men's basketball coach Chris Lowery and I see eye-to-eye. We both love Saluki hoops. We both are world travelers. We both love Harold's Chicken in Chicago. And now, we both love paycheck Friday.

Tonight, TBDS Late Night will be short-lived so you can get your butt outside. Yours truly has some packing to do, but might push that aside to take in what will surely be a beautiful night in Southern Illinois.

Instead of leaving you with a boatload of links, I'll leave you with one link for today's awesome playlist via my LCM's Daily Playlist blog and a classic summer jam.

Get outside. Make a friend. Have a few drinks. Dance a little bit. And go home and make some questionable decisions, dadgumit. Go get your "Becky On" ... It's Friday!

Tweet This: Lowery Inks Jack Crowder

He's not John Wall, but it doesn't matter because SIU head coach Chris Lowery just inked himself another body for the 2009-2010 season.

Via a Twitter post (dear God I love tweets), Lowery said Jack Crowder of Cowley Community College inked with the team this morning. A simple Google search lists Crowder as a 2008-09 NJCAA Region VI All-American.

The Wichita, Kansas native is a 6-foot-4 shooting guard with a penchant for scoring. OK, so the link is from October 2008, but still serves a point. This link says he averaged 10.7 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. Via recruiting Web site Rivals.com, Crowder was recruited by Ball State, Fresno State, Northwestern State, Tennessee State and Central Arkansas.

(Yes, the same Central Arkansas that produced Scottie Pippen.)

So, SIU is getting Scottie Pippen? I'm sold.

And check out this glowing endorsement from February.

Who: Jack Crowder III, 6-foot-4 sophomore forward at18th-ranked Cowley College (W. Southeast ‘07) What: 43 points, 9 rebounds, 7 threes, 2 steals and 14 of 15 from the charity stripe … Tigers win 93-91 in OT at Coffeyvile to force what seemed like (two weeks ago, at least) it was damn near impossible, a tie for first in the Jayhawk East with the Red Ravens. Why: Because that’s how he’s wired — play hard, never quit.

Sounds like a winner to me. Good grab, C-Lo.

And If You Didn't Know, Now You Know

Southern Illinois' worst kept secret in made official via Twitter.

"Marcus Belcher is official! Had a great time @ the SI Miners game last night."

And of course I'm glad to see Coach Lowery is a baseball fan.

CoachLowery SIU [Twitter]

Good Morning And Welcome To Twitter

Welcome to the Twittersphere, Chris Lowery.

Yeah, I made up the word Twittersphere. When it gets big, I want credit for it.

To be honest, I didn't think Coach Lowery would be jumping on board. I had mentioned it in a conversation we had a few weeks ago and he mentioned he wouldn't want to do it if someone else had to do it for him (see Kiffin, Lane).

What's next for Coach Lowery? A spot on The Big Dead Sidebar? Only if he wants it.
...

In more coaching stuff floating around the web, AOL's Fanhouse names Lowery as an up-and-comer in its Top-25 coaches poll. Former Saluki head coaches Matt Painter (14) and Bruce Weber (19) are in the "solid as a rock" catergory. "The System" still stands strong.

As a Carolina homer, I won't argue against Roy Williams at the top spot ... and as someone who respects what Tom Izzo has done in his coaching career, I have no beef with that either.

Never have been a fan of Bob Huggins (West Virginia) or Bruce Pearl (Tennessee) and am wondering where Dana Altman ranks on the list for averaging 23 wins the last 10 years or so.

...

In other Twitter news:

• Shaq wants Kobe to win title No. 4
  
• SIU coach Missy Tiber wants you to holler at a player if you see 'em in the streets (in much better terminology, obviously)
• Tony LaRussa is suing Twitter (via Leitch)

...

Think that's enough for you good folks this morning.

Building A Champion: The Coaching Staff

The SIU men's basketball team has been blessed with a bevy of talented coaches, especially in recent years.

The Floorburn U Salukis that dominated the Valley for a good part of this decade started with Bruce Weber, who was hired in 1998 to replace Rich Herrin.

Weber, a disciple of the Gene Keady school of basketball, instilled a hard-nosed man-to-man defense along with the motion offense.

Coach Bruce suffered through some tough times in Carbondale, as he was not the people's choice to replace Herrin as Saluki Nation couldn't comprehend him being "one of us."

It didn't matter to Weber, who posted a 103-54 record in his time at SIU.

And since he deserves most of the credit for rebuilding the once-proud basketball program, he will be the team's head coach.

Times were thin for the Saluki head coach, who used his secretary's nice car to pick up recruits because he drove a beater.

Kinda sounds like what I'm going through in the dating scene. It's hard to pick up the honeys when you're driving a '72 Nova.

Still, he was able to bring in talented players, underachievers and guys who flew under the radar to build a champion.

As for his assistants, well, they're awfully knowledgeable when it comes to the game of basketball.

His top assistant will be Matt Painter, the man who followed him at SIU. Painter posted a 25-5 record in the 2003-04 season and only lost one game in the Missouri Valley Conference that season before skipping town to coach his alma mater, Purdue.

Chris Lowery will be the Weber's No. 2 man and his defensive coordinator. Lowery amplified Keady's system by heightening the intensity of the man-to-man defense and will forever be remembered as the coach who coined "Floorburn U." I hope he's getting money off that -- not that his $750,000 salary isn't more than enough.

The team's third assistant, and offensive coordinator by default will be Rich Herrin. Oh what a tangled web we weave here at The Big Dead Sidebar as I've just hired the last four coaches in the Salukis' history.

Herrin's philosphy was simple. Score. Score a lot. Lowery, who played under Herrin, often tells tales of Herrin's "if you don't score, you don't play" days ... and does a killer impression of his former head coach.

With Weber, Painter, Lowery and Herrin on the bench (and probably long-time assistant Rodney Watson) SIU would have an excellent X's and O's coach assited by offensive and defensive masterminds up-and-down the bench.

This coaching staff alone would win Southern a much-coveted Missouri Valley Conference Tournament title.

Relax....

The message boards are ablaze with "Fire Chris Lowery" posts left and right and it just blows my mind.

Look, I was disappointed with the SIU Salukis last season after failing to qualify for the NCAA Tournament despite a lofty preseason ranking.

Of course I'm even more frustrated this year but Lowery doesn't need to be fired for a million reasons.

Two reasons that stand out the most:

1) Money
2) Track record

No small-market team can afford to fire a coach who recently started a $750,000-a-year contract and this is no exception. It took a miracle to keep him here to begin with. There were big name schools after him with deeper pockets, not to mention the fact that SIU is struggling financially anyway.

And even if money weren't an issue, Lowery's track record indicates that everything will be fine.

As Alfonso Soriano once told Cub fans: "Be Paitient."

It's not like Lowery is doing a spectacular job lately and most of the blame sits squarely on his shoulders. But the blame that rests on his shoulders will be gone soon enough.

You see it was the problems and mistakes Lowery made during his first two-to-three seasons at the helm that are affecting him now.

I realize that sounds crazy because the team went to the second round of the NCAA Tournament his first season, then reached the tournament again in his second and completed the spectacular run with a Sweet 16 appearance his third year, but he did that with Bruce Weber and Matt Painter's players.

That was always my knock against him but he fixed that this year.

The thing that kept the line moving from 2001-2007 was great coaching, continuity and great recruiting. But the last part disappeared in 2005 to an extent.

SIU has always relied on a dominant back court and each year or so, a new duo would take over without any drop in production.

But since 2005, there were a few players who never panned out and the ones who did, didn't become superstars. Couple that with some tough luck in recruiting and you have a recipe for back-to-back letdown seasons.

Take Bryan Mullins and Matt Shaw for example. Both players came in and started at some point as freshmen and did a respectable if not remarkable job for their age.

But as we saw last season and to a different extent this season, they were never able to really build much on what they had already done.

Shaw was supposed to form a dynamic duo with fellow senior Randal Falker last season but it never panned out.

Sure you can blame the brutal schedule but they didn't deliver in the conference tournament either. Falker was constantly being double-teamed and Shaw and Mullins weren't big enough threats offensively to take the pressure of him.

This season we've seen great things out of Mullins before he got injured but we didn't need a pass-first point guard anymore. We needed a scorer.

Obviously this isn't an offensive oriented team but you need a go-to-threat and as the senior leader, Mullins should have been it.

Obviously this is no knock on Mullins, he did his job as a great point guard and played unreal defense but he didn't have a whole lot of help because Lowery failed to lock up local standout Josh Tabb.

Part of this wasn't Lowery's fault because Tabb had to sit out a year because of academics and then decided Bruce Pearl and the Rocky Top Vols were too good to ignore.

The problem with that year is that Lowery never rebounded from a recruiting standpoint.

The year before he thought he could get something out of Wesley Clemmons eventually but here we are five years later and he's still an sixth man at best.

The two post players Lowery reeled in were busts and never looked capable of playing in the Missouri Valley Conference. Those players, Jordan Armstrong and Christian Cornellius were level headed guys, just not premier basketball players, or even bench players.

Fast forward to the next year of recruiting and you'll find a couple of quick fixes but no long term depth or star power.

Transfers Kobby Acquah and Tyrone Green were fun to watch for different reasons but neither offered any help past the Sweet 16 season.

The only other player of note in the class was Josh Bone, who had a rocky few months of play before transferring this season.

So by my count, out of his two recruiting classes that should still be around, he has one player left on the team (Mullins).

That's an absolutely brutal indication of just how bad Lowery was at recruiting initially.

It wasn't untill the 2007 recruting class that we finally saw glimpses of Lowery's recruiting abilities (a deep tournament run didn't hurt either).

But even that class was tainted with a defection/disappointment (Brandon Wood).

Carlton Fay was the gem of the class at the time, although Justin Bocot may have something to say about that, and Nick Evans could eventually provide help in the post.

Fact of the matter is SIU had only a couple of players they could use this year with any kind of confidence.

Mullins and Fay were the only significant pieces to return this season (I don't count Tony Boyle).

Now you can see why the Salukis are where they are despite a dynamite recruiting class they had in 2008.

There wasn't enough depth because of bad early recruiting and defections. The defections aren't on Lowery but the bad talent evaluation is.

I don't miss Bone, Wood, Cornellius, Armstrong or Torres Roundtree (this year's defection). Four of those players weren't very good and the fifth (Roundtree) just got kicked out of JUCO for drug problems.

I do miss some kind of depth or star power Lowery failed to provide during his first few years on the job.

But you live and learn and Lowery has.

I thought the high-water mark for this team was 18 wins and that seems lightyears away at this point.

Either way, this was going to be a rebuilding year but despite the young crop of talent SIU has, the depth doesn't improve much next year.

The good news is, we've at least seen flashes of certain players to know there is a bright future ahead.

Now is the time to use the opened scholarships on junior college players to provide desperately needed depth.

Tony Freeman should be dynamite next year at one of the guard positions and in turn will move one of the three freshmen guards to the bench. The questions become who and how they will handle it.

In different ways, Kevin Dillard, Ryan Hare and Bocot has shown they are capable of holding down a starting spot, but who becomes the sixth man? Perhaps Lowery would switch to a four-guard offense.

If there's no change in the set up of the lineup, you have to figure the battle is between Hare and Bocot because Dillard is a pure point guard who is currently leading the team in points per game.

This isn't a bad dillema for a team sorely needing depth but the player who heads to the bench has to buy into that role for a year before Freeman vacates it.

Couple that with Fay and either Anthony Booker or Evans and you should have a pretty solid starting five if Fay and the rest of the squad take that next step.

Say it pans out this way.

PG - Kevin Dillard
SG - Justin Bocot
SF - Tony Freeman
PF - Carlton Fay
C - Anthony Booker

That sounds like a rock solid starting five despite the youth and inexperience.

Couple that with Evans and Hare as some of the first people of your bench and it sounds even better.

So be paitient with Lowery for another year and let's see what happens.

In the meantime, his goal should be adding two or three players who can come in and make an impact of the bench immediately.

Oh crap, here come the "Fire Lowery" folk

Sighs.

I'll address it only because it's my beat.

I'm not going to call for Chris Lowery's head.

There. I said it.

I got a text message Sunday morning that suggested it. I read a bunch of message board material that asked for it.

I understand fans are upset after Saturday's loss because, remember, I was a fan once. I stood in the cold to get into games at the SIU Arena. I stayed throughout blowouts at McAndrew Stadium for football games. And blow out losses at home to archrivals like Creighton are just absolutely demoralizing.

But calling for a coach's head after that loss is just kind of ridiculous.

The last two years fans have scrambled to their local places of worship to pray that schools such as DePaul, Michigan, LSU, Stanford, Marquette, Oklahoma State, Indiana, etc. didn't come in and swoop a rising coaching star. Now, they want to show them the door for a sub-.500 record with a team full of freshmen.

To be honest, I expected better from the Salukis this year. I expected them to be an NCAA team because I thought the Valley was stronger this year and the top three teams could get in. Boy, I was wrong about that.

As the year progressed, I thought this team could be NIT-bound. No shame in that. Postseason basketball allows you to have additional practices to work out those freshman kinks.

At 11-15, SIU looks to be watching all playoff basketball on the boob tube just like me.

As for Lowery, who has another stellar class of recruits coming in, I believe certain segments of Saluki Nation needs to give him another chance.

Because three MVC championships, a MVC Tourney championship and a Sweet 16 appearance should have bought him enough time.

12/17 Chris Lowery Post Game

SIU defeated Northern Illinois, 73-58, as Saluki head coach Chris Lowery picked up his 100th victory.

Oh Lindsey, you tease...

I'm used to girls named Lindsay being teases.

See Lindsay Lohan.

But Lindsey Willhite, who is one of the best sportswriters in Chicagoland, put together a nice lil' interview with SIU men's basketball head coach Chris Lowery.

Allow me (SIU hoops beat writer for the Daily Egyptian) to break down some highlights.

Lowery never pulls punches or fails to say what he believes. While the conversation became even better after I turned off the recorder, the on-the-record stuff was pretty good, too. Here's a sampling:

When a story starts like that, you know it's gonna be good. Just don't go Bob Kravitz on me.

Joe College: I never thought I'd see the day when Southern Illinois would be letting its opponents shoot 43.6 percent.
Chris Lowery: Well, we've never had six freshmen either. We've always been older. We've never had such an influx of young players, but we've never been able to get that good of a young player like we have right now. We have some freshmen playing a lot of minutes -- and we have freshmen come in for freshmen. It's never been that way. ... Another thing, we've played a hard schedule. We've played as tough a schedule as anyone in the country with six of our first nine being on the road.

Lowery has talked in previous media sessions (which I have been a part of) about how he has had to adjust to a young squad and how in the past he didn't "waste his time" with youngsters because they would learn as they got older. SIU is usally senior heavy and if you look at its most successful teams and you can link its success with the senior leadership provided by Jamaal Tatum, Tony Young, Darrin Brooks, Stetson Hairston, Kent Williams, etc. The combination of youth and a rugged road schedule might take its toll now, but Lowery continues to stress "it's not about now, it's about March."

JC: Do you do the schedule?
CL: Yeah. Not very smart. But I think what it does, it makes us tougher. It makes us stronger in our league. That's why our RPI over the past six years is 22. Because we played people and we've had success. That's developed who we are in our personality. But we're going to take some lumps early and we know we're going to get better because we're going to continue to coach them and work them.

Fresno State football head caoch Pat Hill became a media darling when he said his Bulldog squad would play anyone anywhere. That's the kind of fearless scheduling that makes good players want to play for you. Who wants to star against the Little Sisters of the Poor when they can show their talents against teams such as Duke and UCLA and in NBA arenas such as New York City's Madison Square Garden or Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Thumbs up to coach for not scheduling Cupcake City College.


JC: Is this the end of the NIU-SIU series?
CL: It's the end right now. Obviously we want to look at it again. How it came about is we wanted a game in Chicago and this is the closest we could get. Bryan Mullins, our senior (point guard from Downers Grove South), we wanted to bring him home in his last year. We were very fortunate to get this game.

As a Chicago kid, I want SIU to play the Chicagoland schools (DePaul, Northwestern, UIC, Loyola, NIU) not only so I can see my soon-t0-be alma mater but so the program can get exposed to the city's best hoopsters and kids who want to go to a darn good university. I hope to talk to B-Mull, Ryan Hare, Kevin Dillard and Tony Freeman and see how they feel about this pseudo-homecoming.

JC: OK, I have to ask this only because I see this on the DePaul message boards: They seem to think (Jerry) Wainwright's on his way out and they think somebody like you could come in and save them. You're not going anywhere to save people, are you?
(Note: Lowery's in the second year of a seven-year extension that pays him $750K per year).
CL: The biggest thing for me is, I want to win. That's No. 1. The only way I would leave Southern is if I thought I could go and win somewhere. I make great money. So I don't have to take a job where I feel is going to be detrimental to my career. I don't think I'm going to go anywhere that's detrimental to winning. And that's the thing: I've always been a part of winning, from high school to college to assistant (coach). Every step of the way, I've had some success. At this point, I don't need to go anywhere just for money.

Lowery's name is going to come up anytime a college job opens up. That's just the nature of a good young coach who is one win from his 100th as the Salukis head coach. At a practice before the Charlotte game, I asked C-Lo about the program and what it would mean to win your 100th so soon after following great coaches such as Bruce Weber (now at Illinois) and Matt Painter (now at Purdue) in continuingn their tradition of winning. Lowery said while the SIU job has been a stepping stone for Weber and Painter, it is different for him because he's an alum and that he wants to take the Salukis to their highest level. It sounds like his ties to Southern are strong, even if big sacks of cash come a-callin' for the 36-year-old star guard turned head coach.

That's comforting to hear, I guess.

And that's where I clicked stop on the recorder.

Oh Lindsey, you tease!