Bowlin inked to pro deal

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Willie Brown

Skyler Bowlin celebrates the Lions MIAA championship clinching win on Feb. 23.

Skyler Bowlin had better invest in some German lessons. Actually, he won’t have to pay a dime, ahem, a euro for them.

Missouri Southern men’s basketball’s all-time 3-point leader may be out of eligibility, but his career is far from over.

Bowlin announced on his Facebook page Tuesday night that he had been presented with the opportunity to continue a basketball career.

“Just made a child hood dream come true!” he said in the post. “I signed my first professional contract. I am the newest member of the BG Lietershofen/Stadtbergen Red Kangaroos out of Augsburg, Germany!!”

According to Bowlin, the Red Kangaroos are currently in the finals of Germany’s Pro B league, but will be moving into the Pro A league next season, Germany’s No. 2 league.

“Never really thought about even playing professional basketball until this year,” he said. “I thought maybe it could happen, and you know, to actually sign the contract and know I’m going to be able to make some money doing something I love is just unbelievable—an unbelievable feeling.

“I’ve worked my tail off trying to get to this point, and now that I actually have the opportunity to do it, it’s just an amazing feeling.”

Southern head coach Robert Corn is as excited for and confident in his former star point guard as anyone.

“We are very happy for Skyler to fulfill a dream and have the opportunity to play professional basketball,” he said.

“He has had a great experience and career at Missouri Southern, and he is ready and prepared to tackle this next adventure in his life. I know he will be very successful.”

Bowlin’s professional contract includes a monthly salary, the exact value of which was undisclosed, two round-trip flights to Germany and back, lodging with all expenses paid, a vehicle, German classes, which are mandatory for him to take, health insurance and membership to a local gym.

“I go there at the end of August,” Bowlin said. “My contract starts September 1. I get to come home during Christmas for, I think, a little less than two weeks that they pay for.

“Then I have another free flight to come home whenever the season is over.”

Bowlin’s contract is guaranteed for only one year, but there is the possibility of re-upping with the Red Kangaroos.

Bowlin says he had been in contact with the Red Kangaroos’ head coach for a few weeks working on the details of his deal.

“After the season they actually hit me up on Facebook,” he said. “This guy, this coach hit me up on Facebook saying he was a coach of a German professional team, and he was interested in bringing me over to play for them next year.

“And I didn’t really know what to do. And we talked back and forth a couple of weeks, and I actually signed with my agent, and my agent started taking over talking to him and trying to figure out details of the contract.

“We kind of went back and forth a couple of times and finally settled on the terms of it today [Tuesday].”

Bowlin’s agent, Chris Warren, had not replied to an e-mail requesting comments as of press time.

Bowlin is fourth in career scoring at Southern with 1,664 points scored.

He is also third all-time in school history with 568 assists and second with 265 steals. Bowlin’s records don’t stop there; he ranks second all-time in free-throw percentage at 82.8 percent.

This season, Bowlin led the Lions all the way to the South Central Regional tournament semifinals against Midwestern State University.

Bowlin garnered several individual honors this season including MIAA Player of the Year, MIAA Co-Defensive Player of the Year, South Central Regional Player of the Year.

He was also named to three All-America teams, a Division-II All-Star and a member of the MIAA All-Postseason Tournament team.