tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22571319.post115855300266007246..comments2023-06-18T10:03:39.982-05:00Comments on Gregorian Rants: Observation about SIU basketball players around townPeterGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13362919400474969329noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22571319.post-1158568553982802462006-09-18T03:35:00.000-05:002006-09-18T03:35:00.000-05:00Having met Chris Lowery before, I wouldn't be surp...Having met Chris Lowery before, I wouldn't be surprised if it's his influence on them coming through. His teams play smart and work hard, and they maximize their talent level.<BR/><BR/>I think this was burned into him by former SIU coach Bruce Weber, who is now at UIUC. Weber deserves a large part of the credit for the turnaround in athletics, because if not for the extra revenue that basketball turns in there would be no money to hire Kill, and then have football beat Big Ten teams like Indiana. <BR/><BR/>As far as the academics vs. athletics thing goes... I might write a whole blog post about it, but I will just say briefly that I think Saluki Athletics impresses on their student-athletes that they're students first. With a graduation rate higher than the SIU student body in general by 20 points, I think that maybe we need to look at athletics to increase graduation rates at SIU.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com