Before every important game, men’s basketball coach Chris Downs hangs out courtside with his 5-year-old son, Christopher. There are plays to draw up, hands to shake, a pre-game pep talk, but with a giddy smile spread across his face, it is obvious this coach would not want to be doing anything else.

That smile is replaced with stern, focused expression as he descends to the Saints locker room. The conference season is where Liberty League championships and bids to the NCAA Tournament are won.

The Saints are in the thick of a conference race that traditionally comes down to a handful of teams gritting it out for the best record. With a team that includes just one senior and 10 underclassmen, SLU has perhaps the youngest team in the league.

Coaching young players, however, is where Downs excels. He led the Saints to the NCAA Elite Eight and was named East Region Coach of the Year and New York State Coach of the Year in 1998. Despite losing a National All-American and a Regional All-American, Downs coached his young players to a 16-win season the following year. In 2002-03, he helped develop forward Aaron Marshall into one of the top forwards in the region as Marshall was named First-Team All-East Region, one of four Downs-coached players to be named to that team. Last season, he worked diligently with freshman forward Bela Vonnak, who went on to receive the Liberty League Rookie of the Year Award. 

“Some people think I’m crazy building my livelihood around guys that are 18 to 20 years old,” Downs says. “But watching their emotional, physical and academic growth over four years is far and away the best part of my job.”