Mar 10 / Rob

JMUSB Pod: Rowe is Gone

JMU and Louis Rowe “mutually parted ways” yesterday. It was a move that most people saw coming. Rowe was a great Duke as a player, a terrific role model for the young men he coached, and by all accounts, one of the truly good guys in the world of college basketball. Unfortunately, none of that translated to wins as head coach of JMU. Rowe departs the program with a record of 43-85 over four seasons. This past year, his team finished dead last in the CAA with a 2-16 record in league play. That’s just not good enough.

As you might have noticed, we haven’t been to active on the blog for a while. Much of that is just due to other things taking precedence. We’ve been at this for 10 years and after a while, it’s hard to prioritize writing about whatever is going on in the world of JMU sports, over some of the other things in our lives. But it’s also due to the fact that JMU basketball’s struggles left us at a complete loss. Call us fair weather fans if you must, but that’s not it. We’ve pushed through the past 9 years writing plenty about a program that has been woefully short of high points. We know how to handle disappointment.

After watching JMU fail to make much progress through the first three years of the Rowe era, and the wheels coming completely off this year, we just ran out of gas. We loved Rowe as a player. And we wanted him to succeed probably more than we wanted any other JMU coach to find success. Rowe is the epitome of a JMU Duke. But it just was not working as a coach. At all. And the idea of pointing out the obvious game after game had zero appeal to us. So we waived the white flag and decided it was better to say nothing at all, then to constantly bag on the players and coaches, or lie to ourselves and everyone else by trying to act like the ship was not sinking.

Now Rowe is gone and the Dukes will be coached by someone else next season. We’re pretty torn up for Rowe and the his assistants who are now out of work. But it’s the right move for the future of JMU hoops. Rowe is still a great Duke and a person we admire greatly. We hope he finds success elsewhere. His players are better off for having him in their lives. It’s time to turn the page and get ready for a new coach though.

Anyway, the latest episode of the pod is more of that, plus some discussion about the passing of the legendary Challace McMillin. And then we take the edge off with a more light-hearted OT discussion about our favorite coaches from television the movies.

As always, thanks to our sponsors Pale Fire Brewing and Mossy Creek Fly Fishing. Stop by the brewery for a beer and let them know JMUSB sent you and you’ll go home with a free pint glass. And swing over to the fly shop, tell them JMUSB sent you and they’ll hook you up with some cool stickers.

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