Do you remember Gonzaga starting from 1999, when they became the mid-major darlings of the men's basketball tournament by making deep runs every year? There was a natural clamor of thinking which would be the next program to do that. And for a long time that program was going to be Southern Illinois.
Three years after the Zags erupted out of nowhere to reach the Sweet 16, SIU, under then-coach Bruce Weber, duplicated that feat. The Salukis then went to the next five Big Dances under Weber (who later took the job in Illinois), Matt Painter (who then went to Purdue), and Lowery, who took them to the tourneys from 2005 to 2007, reaching the Sweet 16 in that year before falling to 1-seed Kansas by 3.
Lowery probably was the hottest head coach prospect for any BcS program looking for someone new. He had to have offers to move up to higher-profile positions for more money than he ever could get at Southern Illinois. But I'm pretty sure he faced a crossroads: Does he abandon his alma mater he played point guard for just for personal ambition?
No. He didn't do that. I guess all he wanted to do was make his own Gonzaga in Carbondale, Ill., and be to the program what Mark Few currently is with the Bulldogs (even though Few went to Oregon, not Gonzaga). It's a brave move and a noble gesture in a world where you're expected to leave your non-BcS school as soon as you win a tournament game, or even make a big splash making it into the tournament. But Lowery resisted that conventional thinking, choosing instead to grow the next great mid-major from the school whose most famous alumni is Walt "Clyde" Frazier.
Instead, it all went south. That Sweet 16 run in 2007 was the last time the Salukis made the tournament. They went to the NIT the following year but haven't been to any of the four post-season tourneys since. His teams haven't finished above .500 since 2008. He has suffered a litany of transfers.
Finally, this year's team finished 8-23, the most losses Southern Illinois has ever had in a season. Administrators felt they needed to make a change, and so they canned Lowery, who is now assisting Weber, who's now head coach at Kansas St. A sad, frustrating end to a man who did not do what everyone else did and stayed, trying to create something out of nothing, and ended up not only failing the school he loves but permanently damaging the trajectory of a coaching career that was once his to create. Lowery is a case study in the perils of staying too long.
Poor Bastard.
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