CARBONDALE - If you can't wait for basketball season to meet new Southern Illinois University women's basketball coach Missy Tiber, now you can hook her up to your cell phone.

Tiber was the first Saluki coach to enter the Twittersphere earlier this year, is up to 22 followers, and may have started a trend. Men's basketball coach Chris Lowery joined Twitter last week, and football coach Dale Lennon said he's considering it. Tiber is the only new coach of the three, as she's set to lead the Saluki women for the first time this winter, and is using the service to kind of get her name out in the region.

"When people get to know me as a person, they're going to support the program, too," Tiber said. "A lot of people don't even really know I have it, but as people become more familiar with it, I think I'll get more of a response."

Twitter is a relatively new communication tool that stems from the Internet, but can go through your cell phone in the form of a text message. Twitterers write messages (called tweeting) of 140 characters or less on the Web site (www.twitter.com) about anything from cooking out to daily schedules or actual work. The messages go only to followers, or people that sign up for the service and sign up to "follow" Tiber. Followers can see all her messages on the Web site or set up the messages to roll into their cell phones, as if Tiber is texting to the world. People that Tiber follows can actually respond to her messages.

Monday, Tiber tweeted about going to the vet and signing 5-foot-10 sophomore forward Eboni Crayton of Northeast Mississippi Community College. Before Twitter, unless it came out in another media form, Saluki fans wouldn't have known about Crayton until SIU issued a release. In the Twitter age, Tiber announced it herself.

Other coaches are doing the same, but must adhere to NCAA guidelines. Coaches can't mention potential recruits unless they've signed with the school, according to a June 4 statement from the NCAA, and can only interact with potential recruits under the same guidelines as an e-mail. Coaches can "follow" recruits, and vice versa, but can only reply directly to them as if it's an e-mail.

Lowery was up to 83 followers Monday, and said he was using it kind of like a short, mobile blog.

"It's pretty cool," Lowery said. "I keep getting updates from our manager about people who keep joining because I haven't had it up very long. Coach (Bruce) Weber told me about it."

Weber, the men's coach at Illinois, is one of many in the Twittersphere. Bradley's Jim Les, Kentucky's John Calipari and Minnesota's Tubby Smith are just three of the nationally-known coaches using the service.

Tiber hoped the new outlet led to better attendance this winter.

"If people create a following with me in that aspect of it, maybe they'll come to the games," she said.

todd.hefferman@thesouthern.com / 618-351-5087