Updated Sept. 18, 2007

Spend a few minutes talking to Chris Lowery, and you quickly realize how determined he is to take Saluki Basketball to even greater heights. Though SIU has been to six-straight NCAA Tournaments, including two Sweet 16s, Lowery believes there is still room to grow the program.

Recently signed to a lucrative seven-year contract extension, Lowery, Saluki basketball and winning have been intertwined since he first set foot on the campus as a player in 1990.

Lowery, Saluki basketball and winning have been intertwined since he first set foot on the campus as a player in 1990.

In his 10 seasons as a Saluki player, assistant coach and now head coach, ALL of his teams have advanced to postseason play.

In three seasons as head coach at Southern Illinois, he has compiled a 78-26 record, won three Missouri Valley Conference championships and taken his team to the NCAA Tournament three times. Now 35, he was the youngest head coach in the NCAA Tournament each of the last three seasons.

In 2005, Lowery was the youngest coach to ever win Coach-of-the-Year honors in the Missouri Valley Conference. He won the award again in 2007

It all started 17 years ago when Lowery, as the team's starting point guard, began a stellar playing career that featured two NCAA Tournament berths and two NITs from 1990-94.

A product of Evansville, Ind., Lowery scored 1,225 career points and dished out 391 assists at SIU, which still ranks fourth in school history on the career assists chart. The Salukis were 86-37 (.699) during his four years.

On April 9, 2004, he fulfilled a dream. Lowery returned to his alma mater and was introduced as the 12th men's basketball head coach at Southern Illinois University in the 91-year history of the program.

Prior to landing the head coaching job, Lowery spent three seasons on Bruce Weber's staff at both Southern Illinois and Illinois.

He helped the Salukis to a 52-15 (.776) record and two trips to the NCAA Tournament, including a run to the Sweet 16 in 2002 and back-to-back Missouri Valley Conference championships. He went with Weber to Illinois in 2003 and helped guide the team to a Big Ten title and a trip to the Sweet 16.

Lowery is regarded as one of the top, young recruiters in college basketball.

"(He) has the innate ability to light up a room with his smile and demeanor," ESPN analyst Doug Gottlieb said. "No wonder so many great kids want to play for him."

Lowery said working for Weber helped prepare him for the opportunity to be a head coach at a young age.

"I saw how Coach Weber implemented an entire program at Illinois, and I watched more than I spoke," he said. "I know we have to work hard to continue at this pace of success, though."

"Chris was an important part of our staff at SIU and Illinois, and instrumental in much of the success we have had at each school," Weber said. "He's a terrific young coach."

Lowery began his coaching career as an assistant coach at Rend Lake Community College in Ina, Ill. for two seasons. He then coached at Missouri Southern State College for three years, helping the Lions to a 30-3 record and an NCAA Division II Final Four appearance in 2000.

Prior to his coaching tenure at Southern Illinois, Lowery spent one season as an assistant at Southeast Missouri State under Gary Garner.

Lowery is the third-youngest head coach in school history, behind former Saluki coach and NBA Hall-of-Famer Harry Gallatin, who was 31-years-old when he was named head coach in 1958, and William McAndrew, the founder of Saluki basketball, who was 26 when he took the reigns of SIU's first squad in 1913.

Lowery was born on July 7, 1972 in Evansville, Ind. and attended Harrison High School. He graduated from Southern Illinois in 1995 with a bachelor's degree in physical education.