Chris Lowery Expected to be Named SIU Head Coach

Illinois Assistant Coach Chris Lowery is expected to be named the new head coach at Southern Illinois University tomorrow afternoon at a press conference in Carbondale, IL according to newspaper reports. Read more in this collection of news reports from IlliniBoard.com.

Published newspaper reports that hit the Internet early Friday morning, or late Thursday evening depending on how you look at it, have mentioned that Chris Lowery will be taking over as Head Coach at Southern Illinois, his alma mater.

The first paper to report this information was the St. Louis Post Dispatch stating, "At a second news conference today in Carbondale, Illinois assistant Chris Lowery will be named the 11th coach in Southern Illinois' 91-year history. Lowery will become the Salukis' third coach in three years, following Painter and Bruce Weber, who just completed his first year as Illinois' coach."

The second verification came from the student paper at Southern Illinois, The Daily Egyptian: "SIU Athletic Director Paul Kowalczyk will announce former Saluki player and current Illinois assistant coach Chris Lowery as the 12th head coach in SIU history, the Daily Egyptian learned. Lowery was hired the same day Matt Painter resigned as the head coach at SIU to accept the associate head coach position at Purdue. Kowalczyk filled the vacant coaching position last year in two days."

The moving on of Chris Lowery places another former Illinois Assistant Coach on the sidelines as the head coach of a major Division I basketball program, but it does leave open an assistant coaching position for Bruce Weber to fill. Chris Lowery was a vital part of Bruce Weber's staff in both recruiting and game planning, so the next assistant will have to be able to fill the void left by Lowery in both aspects of coaching.