Chris Lowery Hometown: Evansville, Ind. High School: Harrison Position: Head Coach Birthdate: 07/07/1972 Experience: 6th year Alma Mater: Southern Illinois (1995)

Updated Sept. 18, 2009

Playing one of the toughest schedules in school history a year ago, including games against Duke and UCLA, was a tremendous learning experience for a Saluki squad that featured four freshmen and two sophomores in its playing rotation.

The Salukis did not make the NCAA Tournament for the second-straight year, and Chris Lowery said his young squad is hungry to redeem itself this season.

The theme for the 2009-10 campaign -- "Return to Greatness" -- is not a prediction as much as it is a challenge Lowery has ascribed to his team.

"I just wanted them to understand where this program has been," he explained. "Our six-straight NCAA Tournaments were not a mythical time period. It was not something that just happened. Those guys worked at it and made it happen."

During off-season workouts, Lowery told players how the Salukis of yesterday built the program into the crown jewel of the Missouri Valley Conference. No MVC team has made more NCAA Tournament appearances (6) or won as many NCAA Tournament games (5) this decade as SIU.

"We wanted to put in their minds that if you play hard, you can get back to that level," he said. "It has to be through hard work. We're challenging them to get back to a place where we feel our program deserves to be."

Lowery believes the program is on solid footing. Five of the six returning players will be entering just their second season of college basketball.

"The most exciting thing for us is that we're building for the future," Lowery said. "We know that when these guys are juniors and seniors, that we have a chance to be really special as a program again."

As he tends to do during the off-season, Lowery fine-tuned his approach to coaching. His experience as an assistant with USA Basketball, which claimed the Under-19 Gold medal in New Zealand last summer, was especially applicable.

"I learned how to be an assistant again," Lowery said. "You get used to only thinking one way as a head coach, and I thought that it was eye-opening to be an assistant again."

Players tend to confide in assistants more readily than the head coach, Lowery found. The assistants often have a better pulse on what's happening internally with the team.

"As an assistant, you get to listen to the gripes and deal with the gripes of kids wanting to play more and asking, `why am I being taken out?'" Lowery said. "I think it will help me understand my players better -- thinking in terms of what they need from an assistant standpoint."

The origins of the juggernaut that has become Saluki Basketball can be traced all the way back to the 1992-93 season. That team, which was led by a 20-year-old point guard named Chris Lowery, broke a 16-year NCAA Tournament drought in `93. In doing so, it set into motion a chain of events that has evolved into one of the nation's best college basketball programs.

Lowery was the catalyst for the 1993 and 1994 teams that reached the NCAA Tournament. A scrappy, hustling player, he still ranks among the school's career leaders in scoring, assists and steals.

Lowery returned to his alma mater as an assistant coach under Bruce Weber in 2002. That team advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, knocking off opponents such as Indiana, Texas Tech and Georgia. Saluki Basketball has been on a sweet ride ever since.

After Lowery spent three seasons serving under Weber, he was named head coach at Southern Illinois in 2004.

In his first year at the helm of SIU, all Lowery did was win 27 games and become the youngest coach, at age 32, to ever win Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year honors. The Salukis won the MVC regular-season crown and beat Saint Mary's in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

The program continued its steady ascent.

Lowery guided a team with no seniors to the 2006 NCAA Tournament and a Missouri Valley Conference tournament championship.

In 2006-07, the Salukis had the greatest season in school history. They won a school-record 29 games, advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament and finished the year with a No. 11 ranking -- the highest ever at SIU.

More than any season in school history, the 2006-07 season established an identity for Saluki Basketball. Commentators from across the country marveled at the tenacity with which the Salukis played defense.

"They play as good a defense, if not better defense, than just about anybody in the country," said analyst Jerry Tarkanian. "(Lowery's) defense was so similar to what we were playing at UNLV, that I really fell in love with it. His team just plays so hard and sound. I like his philosophies -- he believes in good, solid defense, starting with fundamentals and with intensity and playing hard."

Southern Illinois ranked third in the nation in points allowed per game with 56.2 in the Sweet 16 season. "I've said for years that no school plays better fundamental, man-to-man defense than Southern Illinois," according to CBS analyst Seth Davis. "Lowery is very charismatic, very intense, and he's a great motivator. He is a product of a winning culture, and it's one of the best examples at the mid-major level of a school having a culture that allows you to win consistently."

Lowery said the key to Southern's defense is how it dictates what an opponent can and cannot do.

"I think our ability to take things away from people sets us apart," explained Lowery. "We play hard on defense. That's probably the only thing that is going to stick out, is our ability to guard and how tough our kids are. We defend, we're tough, and we are in great shape."

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

In his 11 seasons as a Saluki player, assistant coach and now head coach, all but one of his teams have advanced to postseason play. His four-year record as head coach is a remarkable 109-59.

It all started 18 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. The Salukis recorded an 86-37 record 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. 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."

"Chris was instrumental in much of the success we have had at each school," said Weber "He's a terrific young coach."

Lowery is also regarded as one of the top young recruiters in college basketball and has consistently landed some of the region's top players. The 2007-08 recruiting class is widely regarded as the best in school history.

"(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's recruiting philosophy is simple.

"Recruit the areas you're strong in," he said. "And the areas you're not strong in, get to know the people better and work with them. Don't waste time recruiting people that don't want to come, you're not going to get, or that aren't good enough. I think we've done a good job of those three things."

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. The Redhawks finished 18-12 that season.

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.

Lowery and his wife, Erika, have four children: Lexis (15), C.J. (9), Kahari (8) and Jazmyn (5). They reside in Carbondale.