By Jennifer Fuller
Carbondale, IL – The Saluki Men's Basketball team suffered its worst loss in school history over the weekend, and SIU's CEO says he and others are keeping a close eye on the program as the season moves on.
University President Glenn Poshard says while there is mounting frustration in the basketball program's struggle... it's important to not rush into any decisions regarding Head Coach Chris Lowery.
"Coach Lowery is a very fine person, and he's been an excellent basketball coach in the past. We want to give him every opportunity that we can to turn this around."
The Salukis, who are 6-14 on the season and 3-6 in the Missouri Valley Conference, posted a losing record last season and have struggled over the past several years.
Meanwhile, Poshard says conflicting information from Springfield makes it hard to plan for Fiscal Year 2013, but he's keeping his fingers crossed that funding will remain at least level with this year.
Poshard says two very different messages regarding higher education monies were coming of Springfield over the past several weeks.
"We were told right before Christmas, by the Office of Management and Budget, that we were going to get a 4.25% decrease in our appropriations for FY 2013. Right after the holidays, the Governor indicated that he was going to hold higher education level for next year. So hopefully we've escaped that, but it could change overnight."
Poshard says the state is already more than $100 million behind in its payments to SIU for this fiscal year... and with new performance-based funding set to take effect in the coming budget year, things could soon be even more complicated when it comes to how much money is available and for what purpose.
