Following-up on something that I mentioned in today’s DAILY DIRT…Saginaw Valley State University has made the hiring of Chris Fowler official – here’s the announcement from the school:
Saginaw Valley State University has named Chris Fowler as its new men’s head basketball coach, according to an announcement made Friday, May 9 by Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics John Lewandowski. Fowler, a 32-year-old Southfield, Michigan native, comes to SVSU from Western Michigan University where he spent the last three years, including the 2024-25 season as the Broncos’ associate head coach.
Fowler’s championship pedigree will be on full display when he’s formally introduced at a press conference on Monday, May 12 at 2 p.m. in Curtiss Hall (Seminar Rooms E-F).
“While in the process of searching for the Cardinals’ ninth head basketball coach in school history, Coach Fowler emerged as the ideal candidate to rebuild our program and mold it into a championship contender,” Lewandowski said. “He has experienced winning at the highest level throughout his career as a player and a coach and has learned from some of the best in the business. Not only has Chris demonstrated the ability to develop players on the court, but he also has displayed a penchant for bringing out the best in them in terms of character, integrity and leadership.”
Fowler, who has the rare distinction of being a four-time collegiate captain while at Central Michigan University, began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Michigan State University under Hall of Fame Coach Tom Izzo in 2018. During one highly successful season in East Lansing and a promising one cut short by the COVID pandemic, Fowler worked alongside Spartan associate head coach Dwayne Stephens.
After Stephens left MSU to take over Western Michigan’s struggling program in 2022, he hired Fowler away from Northern Arizona, where he managed skill development for guards and served as the Lumberjacks’ primary recruiter. The Broncos improved from 4-14 in the Mid-American Conference to 9-9 in Fowler’s second season on the bench and made their first MAC Tournament appearance in seven seasons. Stephens promoted Fowler to associate head coach prior to last season and WMU again went 9-9 in league play to achieve back-to-back MAC Tournament appearances for the first time since 2014.
“Chris Fowler is going to be a star in our business,” Stephens said. “He has a great grasp for all aspects of the job and will do great things at SVSU. Chris has a tremendous basketball mind and is always trying to get better. He was a high-achieving player at CMU, with exceptional leadership skills. Chris is ready to lead his own program, and with his ability to bring out the best in his players, I expect the Cardinals will immediately begin climbing the GLIAC standings.”
While pursuing the SVSU head coach position, Fowler expressed his commitment to facilitating the all-around growth of young men through academics and basketball, especially the winning kind.
“Player development and the ability to build a culture of excellence are the hallmarks of every place that I’ve been as a player and coach,” Fowler said. “My ability to cultivate and maintain relationships as well as my proven history of developing disciplined and responsible men are the primary reason I can create a championship culture at Saginaw Valley State University.
“SVSU has expectations of winning championships, graduating every student-athlete, and preparing them for life after sports, and I am prepared to lead this program in these endeavors.”
Fowler has been accustomed to chalking up victories at every stop. As a savvy junior guard, he helped lead Detroit Country Day School to the 2010 Class B state championship. The following season, as a senior captain at Detroit Country Day, Fowler led the Yellowjackets to the MHSAA state tournament semifinal. Following his graduation from high school, he spent a postgraduate year at IMG Academy where he averaged 12 points and eight assists per game.
Fowler’s leadership and star power were on full display almost immediately as Central Michigan’s freshman captain in 2012-13. He started all 31 games and was the MAC Freshman of the Year runner-up and was named third-team All-MAC as a sophomore. While the Chippewas were en route to winning the 2015 MAC Championship during Fowler’s junior season, he went on to distinguish himself as a first-team All-MAC and Academic All-MAC selection, a finalist for the Lou Henson National Player of the Year Award, and the MAC Player of the Year runner-up. He repeated All-MAC honors as a senior while earning MAC Distinguished Scholar-Athlete honors. He is the only Chippewa to earn National Association of Basketball Coaches first-team all-district designation – and he did it twice. Fowler holds CMU career records for assists (686), free-throw attempts (680) and made free throws (475), and is third all-time with 185 steals. He was the first player in school history to amass 1,000 career points, 500 assists, 250 rebounds and 150 steals.
After graduating from Central Michigan with a bachelor’s degree in arts in theater and interpretation, Fowler played professionally in Germany’s Pro A league, Australia’s former Queensland Basketball League and with the Fort Wayne (Ind.) Mad Ants in the NBA G-League.
After retiring as a player, Fowler enrolled at MSU to pursue a master’s in sports coaching and leadership, which he completed in 2019, and learned from Izzo, one of the most respected coaches in all of sports. Fowler was a part of the Spartans’ 2019 Big Ten Conference regular-season and tournament championship runs along with Izzo’s most recent of eight NCAA Final Four appearances.
“Cardinal Nation, I want you to know you’re in for a treat,” Izzo said. “In Chris Fowler, you got a guy who worked here at Michigan State for two years, played at Central Michigan and calls the state of Michigan home. His brother Bennie went to Michigan State and became a great receiver in the pros. Fowler is a very good name, but that’s not why you’re lucky.
“Chris is going be a great coach for Saginaw Valley and I think can lead your program to another level. Hopefully, you’ll enjoy him as much as I did. Good luck to all of you. I look forward to watching his success that I know he’s going to have at SVSU.”
A key component to the 2018-19 season’s success was junior Cassius Winston’s emergence into a complete point guard under Fowler’s tutelage. Winston would go on to earn Big Ten Player of the Year honors and be named first-team All-American (Associated Press, Sporting News). Winston entered the COVID-shortened 2019-20 season as the only unanimous preseason All-American.
“Chris Fowler knows how to create a winning culture,” Winston, who now plays professionally in the Italian Basketball League, said. “He provides the perfect balance of leadership along with being able to relate to the players while helping them get on the floor and become the best versions of themselves both on and off the court. During my time at MSU, Chris played a huge role in helping me develop into the player I am today.”
After leaving Michigan State, Fowler recruited former 4-star point guard Jalen Cone out of Virginia Tech to Northern Arizona where he earned third-team All-Big Sky Conference honors as a junior and senior and had the second-highest scoring season in school history. Cone finished his collegiate career as a graduate student at the University of California and led the Pac-12 in three-point baskets and attempts.
Four Western Michigan players – Chansey Willis, B. Artis White, JaVaughn Hanna and Lamar Norman – earned All-MAC accolades during Fowler’s tenure with the Broncos.
Fowler and his wife Alexandra have a son Christopher and a daughter Kylar. Alexandra (Green), who earned a bachelor’s degree in communication with a double minor in marketing and management from SVSU in 2016, was a four-year letterwinner for the Cardinals’ women’s basketball team from 2012-16, playing in 105 career games including 62 starting assignments.
