{"id":9364,"date":"2017-04-16T21:45:03","date_gmt":"2017-04-17T01:45:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=9364"},"modified":"2017-04-16T21:51:38","modified_gmt":"2017-04-17T01:51:38","slug":"lou-rowe-seems-to-have-put-together-a-good-recruiting-class-you-guys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=9364","title":{"rendered":"Lou Rowe Put Together a Good Recruiting Class You Guys"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Likm_8V0NZM\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nThe 2016-2017 JMU basketball season was a disappointment. With one of the most experienced rosters in the CAA, JMU struggled mightily out of conference and then finished 8th in the CAA. However, they won a game in the CAA tournament for the first time in years. Perhaps more importantly, they\u00a0showed no signs of quitting all season even after it was clear they were out of the running. That&#8217;s no small thing in our humble opinion.<\/p>\n<p>To be honest, we were as shocked as anyone when JMU hired Lou Rowe. We loved watching him play and consider him one of our all time favorite Dukes. He lacked any head coaching experience and this past year showed that he&#8217;s got room to improve on the Xs and Os side of things. However, like we mentioned, his players never quit and they sure seemed to buy into what he was selling. Unfortunately, those things weren&#8217;t consistently true during former coach Matt Brady&#8217;s time at the helm.<\/p>\n<p>Rowe&#8217;s in game coaching will improve with more game reps. In today&#8217;s college basketball game, talent trumps pretty much everything anyway. If Rowe can recruit well and build a positive culture for JMU basketball, the Dukes could finally be a year in and year out contender in the CAA. Fortunately, Rowe seems to be doing both those things. His first full recruiting class has us particularly excited.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.scout.com\/player\/194264-darius-banks\">Darius Banks<\/a> is the latest signee for the Dukes. He&#8217;s a 6&#8217;5&#8243; shooting guard out of St. Petersburg, Florida. He was rated as a 3 star recruit by ESPN and Scout and is ranked the 34th best recruit at his position in the country. Banks signed last week and joined four other recruits who signed in the Fall. Along with Banks, Zach Jacobs, Greg Jones, Matt Lewis, and Dwight Wilson make a very intriguing 5 man class.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.richmond.com\/sports\/high-school\/basketball\/boys\/cut-by-his-middle-school-basketball-team-player-of-the\/article_55c15c66-2153-11e7-b6ef-0f9a8b6aaffb.html\">Jacobs<\/a> was the Richmond All-Metro Player of the Year after averaging 21 points and 9 boards as a 6&#8217;8&#8243; forward for Trinity Episcopal. Jones joined Jacobs on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.richmond.com\/sports\/high-school\/basketball\/boys\/the-all-metro-boys-basketball-team\/article_f40c3994-214f-11e7-9107-6f3970c8929f.html\">Richmond All-Metro First Team<\/a>. He&#8217;s a 6&#8217;6&#8243; forward who can bang down low and hit from outside. He averaged 18 and 9 and shot 36% from long range for John Marshall. Matt Lewis\u00a0is another Virginia recruit. He landed on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/2017-winter-allmet\/boys-basketball\/?utm_term=.3621fb82d9a3\">Washington Post&#8217;s All-Met Third Team<\/a>. The fact that he played for O&#8217;Connell High School is gross (Go PVI!). But we can overlook that now that he&#8217;s a Duke. Playing at O&#8217;Connell means he played in\u00a0the WCAC, arguably the top high school hoops league in the country. That&#8217;s huge. Lewis played against ACC, Big 10, and Big East recruits all year and managed to score in double figures while running the point. He&#8217;s a good get and hopefully he&#8217;s a sign that JMU will finally open up a WCAC\/DMV recruiting pipeline. And finally Dwight Wilson is another Florida recruit. Listed at 6&#8217;8&#8243; and 245 lbs, he averaged 16 points and a ridiculous 17 boards a game as a junior. Those rebounding numbers have us drooling.<\/p>\n<p>JMU took some lumps this past season. That was obvious. But ask anyone who ever played with Rowe or knows him well, and they&#8217;ll go on and on about how he&#8217;s the perfect guy for JMU. They&#8217;ll swear he&#8217;s got a clear vision of what he wants the JMU basketball program to be. And that he&#8217;s got an undeniable ability to recognize talent and sell recruits on that vision. This recruiting class has us thinking they might be right.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fjmusportsblog.com%2F%3Fp%3D9364&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=true&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light&amp;height=80\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:80px;\" allowTransparency=\"true\"><\/iframe>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 2016-2017 JMU basketball season was a disappointment. With one of the most experienced rosters in the CAA, JMU struggled mightily out of conference and then finished 8th in the CAA. However, they won a game in the CAA tournament for the first time in years. Perhaps more importantly, they\u00a0showed no signs of quitting all [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9305,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=9305","url_meta":{"origin":9364,"position":0},"title":"JMU Gets First CAA Tourney Win Since 2013","date":"March 4, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"JMU knocked off Drexel by the score of 80-70 in the opening round of the CAA tournament last night.\u00a0Yes, the victory came on Pillow Fight Friday, and the Dukes have had a long, long season, but it's still worth celebrating. For one thing, it's a win in March Madness, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Basketball&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10189,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=10189","url_meta":{"origin":9364,"position":1},"title":"JMU Closes the Season With a Loss to Drexel","date":"March 5, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"That's all she wrote folks. JMU fell to Drexel in the Dean Keener round of the CAA Tournament, ending the 2017-2018 season. The Dukes played well in the opening half of the 70-62 loss, but the wheels came off down the stretch. After a season of exciting offensive play throughout\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Basketball&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/588b78d4c7a6e.image_-1024x683.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9244,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=9244","url_meta":{"origin":9364,"position":2},"title":"Yohanny Dalembert is Done for Good","date":"January 25, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"After a rough start in OOC play (understatement), we've been relatively pleased with JMU's .500 record in CAA play.\u00a0And with UNCW coming to town later this week, the Dukes have an opportunity to pull off the biggest win of Lou Rowe's young career. They're going to have to try and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Basketball&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10746,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=10746","url_meta":{"origin":9364,"position":3},"title":"It Was a Great Weekend for JMU Hoops","date":"January 13, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The JMU men's basketball team appeared to be hitting rock bottom after a brutal loss to a struggling UNCW squad that had lost six straight. The fans who hadn't yet abandoned the squad, were reaching the point of maximum frustration. And then what happened? The Dukes put together one of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Basketball&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/011818_Elon_17-1024x576.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10148,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=10148","url_meta":{"origin":9364,"position":4},"title":"Are the Dukes Pointed in the Right Direction?","date":"February 1, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"JMU Basketball plays at Drexel tonight. The Dukes currently sit at 6-17 overall and 2-8 in league, with just 8 games remaining before the CAA tourney. They're last in the CAA. This is coming on the heels of a season in which they went 10-23 and finished 8th in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Basketball&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/59892ac7df4f7.image_.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10152,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=10152","url_meta":{"origin":9364,"position":5},"title":"JMU Lost Again and Now We Question Everything","date":"February 2, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Stop us if you'd heard this one before, but JMU lost another one possession game. They played tough and had several chances to close it out, but poor offensive execution, sloppy play, and defensive lapses plagued them in crunch time. Good job, good effort, but the Dukes still lost to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Basketball&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/588b78d4c7a6e.image_-1024x683.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9364"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9364"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9370,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9364\/revisions\/9370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}