Chris Lowery named MVC Coach of the Year

[Lakeview Brave]

So if we got picked to finish in the top 3 next year and Les does what is expected (finish at the top), that automatically makes him the Coach of Year because he did what he was supposed to do?

The guy who does the best coaching job is the one who exceeds expectations, not just meets them. The best coach for a given season also deals with adversity and change.

1. Les took his squad to a position MUCH higher in the standings than originally anticipated.
2. He had to completely rework the offense of the team because of graduation/NBA consequences.
3. He had to keep his team playing well in spite of your most prolific scorer going down (Crouch would have gotten Player of the Year consideration if he hadn't gone down, you can bet on that).

Lowery plays the exact same style as SIU plays every year. He returned his whole starting lineup. He was supposed to be successful and was. Why does that make him Coach of the Year? If you worked at McDonald's, do you get Employee of the Month for just doing what you're supposed to???

Was he supposed to finsish first? NO he was picked second. Was he supposed finish ranked 11th in the country and probably get a top 4 seed in the NCAA tournament as a result? I dont think so. Please point to the great talent that SIU has, point to the NBA prospect that has vaulted them to this position. There is almost no league were the coach of the year finished fourth and has 1 win against the top 3 teams. Im sorry, it just doesnt work like that. Again before Im called a basher, hater and what ever else. I think Les did a great job this year.

[Chucky T's]

Coach Lowery was very deserving of this award. He took his team to a MVC championship and has the saluki's in the top 15 in the nation. That being said, JL has also done a tremendous job this year and his rewards will come soon enough. I hope that this season is FAR from over and JL shows just what kind of coach he is.

GO BRAVES!!

Leaving for St Louis in 17 hours and 7 minutes...can't wait!

[romar]

I think that they all know that JL will be dominating the COY trophy for the next 3-4 years, so they threw Lowery a bone. (tongue firmly in cheek).

[flipper]

could race be a factor? how many african-american coaches are in the valley? we all know coach les has a better track record than lowery.

I dunna know. seems coach les was an obvious choice. what are these other people seeing that we don't?

[Bravesfan]

That's garbage! Nothing against Lowery. He's done a great job with SIU this year. But he was supposed to do well with the talent he had. Les got more out of his team than most so-called "experts" thought he could.

Maybe it's their all time high ranking that put Lowery over the top, which he should be commended for. But Les still had the more difficult coaching job, and he should have at least earned close to half the votes at the very least.

[BUBraves06]

I was real ticked when I heard about this. Sure, Lowery won the conference title but the job that Coach Les has done this year has been totally unexpected and without a doubt the best coaching job of the season. Time to prove the haters wrong, starting tomorrow.

[BuBraves55]

Anyone can win with talent, it takes a great coach to take less talented kids and make them winners. The job JL has done is far superior to that of Lowery, just too bad the voter voted because of a team record rather than what the award was meant for.

Les may not be coach of the year to the MVC but he is to us at Bradley, no one, and I mean no one, has done a better job than JL. For that reason he is Coach of the Year.

exactly

[AV23]

could race be a factor? how many african-american coaches are in the valley? we all know coach les has a better track record than lowery.

I dunna know. seems coach les was an obvious choice. what are these other people seeing that we don't?

What a very weak statement flipper using the race card because JL didn't win. You just slap every african-american coach in the face with that comment

[tornado]

AV-- I think flip was being sarcastic, and most of the posters here can accept that Chris Lowery won the award and did a fine job of coaching his team this year.

What's hard to believe is that there are coaches, staff, and media people in the Valley that don't even think Jim Les did a good enough job to rank in the top 3 of Valley coaches.

That proves to me beyond even an inkling of doubt, that either many of the voters are incrediby biased and are unreasonably treating Jim Les unfairly for some reason, or they are so totally ignorant of what went on in the Valley this year that they just don't know, and their voting reflects the vacuum that reflects their cluelessness.

Before you discard the latter possibility, just read some of the news stories that have come out of the Valley this year, and you realize there's a real possibility some of those guys really are pretty ignorant.

[flipper]

AV-- I think flip was being sarcastic, and most of the posters here can accept that Chris Lowery won the award and did a fine job of coaching his team this year.

What's hard to believe is that there are coaches, staff, and media people in the Valley that don't even think Jim Les did a good enough job to rank in the top 3 of Valley coaches.

exactly. i was being a bit sarcastic,but tornado hits the nail right in the head.

[flipper]

could race be a factor? how many african-american coaches are in the valley? we all know coach les has a better track record than lowery.

I dunna know. seems coach les was an obvious choice. what are these other people seeing that we don't?

What a very weak statement flipper using the race card because JL didn't win. You just slap every african-american coach in the face with that comment

kinda sensitive.sorry if you didn't get it. way too serious for a message board.

coach les should have won. period.

[tornado]

Another big turnaround from December to now...
just a little over two months ago many would have given the COY award to Mark Turgeon without question.
In the end Turgeon was the only Valley coach who didn't get a vote from anyone.

[Da Coach]

Here were the final vote totals. If anyone can explain how Royce Waltman, Porter Moser (a 2nd place vote!), Tom Davis (2 second place and 6 third place), or Steve Merfeld should have gotten votes, I'd really like to hear that!

2007 Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year Voting
Coach.............School..............1st...2nd... 3rd...Total
Chris Lowery... Southern Illinois...33.....7......0.....113
Jim Les............Bradley...............7....17...... 8......63
Dana Altman.....Creighton............0.....9.....11.... ..29
Barry Hinson.....Missouri State......0.....4......9......17
Tom Davis........Drake.................0.....2......6. .....10
Porter Moser... Illinois State.........0.....1......2.......4
Ben Jacobson....UNI...................0.....0......2.. .....2
Steve Merfeld...Evansville............0.....0......1.... ...1
Royce Waltman.Indiana State.......0.....0......1.......1
Coaches received 3 points for a first-place vote, two points for a second-place vote and one point for a third-place vote.