Missouri State basketball adds experienced Power 5 coaches to Dana Ford's staff
Missouri State men's basketball announced two additions to Dana Ford's coaching staff on Friday.
Chris Lowery and Bertram "Buzzy" Caruthers III will join Ford's staff in the weeks following associate head coach Corey Gipson's departure to become the head coach at Northwestern State.
Among the moves included promoting assistant coach Jase Herl to the associate head coaching role.
Lowery will serve as the program's "special assistant to the head coach" with Caruthers serving as an assistant. Lowery absorbs a vacant "director of basketball operations" position with a higher title that should include higher pay.
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Lowery comes to Missouri State after spending the last decade on Bruce Weber's staff at Kansas State. He was promoted to the associate head coaching position for the Wildcats in 2012 and helped K-State compile a 184-147 record and five NCAA Tournaments during that time.
He also served on Weber's staff at Southern Illinois (2001-03) and Illinois (2003-04) with eight combined NCAA TOurnaments at the three schools including three trips to the Sweet 16.
Lowery, 49, took over at Kansas State after an eight-year stint as the head coach at Southern Illinois where he was 145-116 with four postseason appearances and two Missouri Valley Conference championships and a league tournament title. The Salukis had three 20-win seasons and advanced to the Sweet 16 in 2007. He's a two-time MVC Coach of the Year who helped the Salukis earn a No. 11 national ranking and a No. 4 seed in the 2007 NCAA Tournament.
Caruthers is originally from Kansas City and comes to Springfield after four years as the director of player development at Nebraska. ON Fred Hoiberg's staff in Lincoln, Caruthers filled different roles in the day-to-day operation and served as an analyst for Nebraska basketball games on the Big Ten Network.
Before joining Nebraska, he spent two years at Lincoln University in Jefferson City and a year at Maryville. He gained Division I experience at St. John's during 2015-16 and also worked at Butler Community College, Chipola College and Dodge City Community College.
Wyatt D. Wheeler is a reporter and columnist with the Springfield News-Leader. You can contact him at 417-371-6987, by email at wwheeler@news-leader.com or Twitter at @WyattWheeler_NL. He's also the co-host of Sports Talk on Jock Radio weekdays from 4-6 p.m.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Missouri State basketball adds Chris Lowery, Buzzy Caruthers to staff