Louis Rowe Puts Finishing Touches on His Coaching Staff
Louis Rowe Was formally introduced as JMU’s newest head coach at a press conference yesterday. The highlight of the event was Rowe’s announcement of his assistant coaches. We already knew that Mike Deane, who was a key part of Matt Brady’s staff, was staying on. Yesterday we learned that Byron Taylor and David Kontaxis would be joining Deane as assistant coaches. Additionally, Larry Davis will assume the role of Director of Basketball Operations.
Byron Taylor spent the past 7 years at the University of North Florida (UNF), as a member of head coach Matthew Driscoll’s coaching staff. He helped lead the team to 45 wins over the past two season. UNF also won the Atlantic Sun and advanced to its first NCAA tournament in 2014. Taylor played ball at Florida A&M, where he earned MEAC All Academic honors.
David Kontaxis comes to JMU from the AAU ranks. He’s been involved with coaching AAU teams in DC and the Virginia/North Carolina region. Prior to getting involved in the AAU ranks, he was the Director of Basketball Operations at William & Mary. Before William & Mary, he was an assistant and head coach at Central High School in Capital Heights, Maryland. His experience could be invaluable for the Dukes in terms of leveraging recruiting relationships in the DMV and Mid-Atlantic.
Larry Davis will round out the JMU basketball staff, assuming the role of Director of Basketball Operations. He comes to JMU after serving as an assistant at Newberry College. Before jumping to the college ranks, he coached high school basketball in South Carolina, leading his team to a state championship. He had the most impressive playing career of any of the new coaches, playing for UNC and eventually transferring to South Carolina. At UNC, he was a member of Dean Smith’s 1993 National Championship squad. After transferring back home to his native South Carolina, he lead the Gamecocks to their first SEC Championship and earned All SEC and All America honors.
Sounds like a pretty solid coaching staff to me. I like they experience and connections these guys ‘should’ have in DMV recruiting area. That was one of my major issues with Brady…..he either could not or did not recruit in VA. It seemed like every team we played had 2-3 VA kids that were solid contributors and JMU has none.
@ShadyP I agree with you about reasons for optimism in terms of ties to the DMV. It’s such fertile talent ground, that it could be huge to develop a pipeline. Lowe might lack a lot of coaching experience, but if he and his staff can recruit superior talent, he’ll have some cushion to learn on the job.
Nobody else from Dean Keener’s staff?
Can someone please tell me why so many Madizone broadcasts are ‘slide shows’ ?? Today’s Lacrosse match is unwatchable … 🙁
It’s been this way for years … how can we consider a move to FBS under these technological conditions??
That’s all fine. None of this makes me excited. I repeat an earlier post that our academic budget is bigger than Villanova’s. Is this a step toward dominating our picayune conference fir the next five years? I am hopeful, but against all the evidence.