Rowe, Brown named to assistant posts at JMU

Edited by Chris Graham
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James Madison men’s basketball coach Matt Brady announced the signing of Louis Rowe to one of three assistant coach positions with the Dukes on Friday. And then today, JMU women’s basketball coach Kenny Brooks announced the hiring of Jennifer Brown as an assistant coach.

“I’m excited for Louis to be back in this full-time position,” Brady said of Rowe. “I’m excited for JMU. He fully demonstrated his passion for JMU in general and our program in particular. He is a guy with a bright future and has everything you’re looking for in a coach. He works hard and possesses good skill knowledge. I’m excited that we have the opportunity to move him up.”

Rowe spent the last two years as a graduate assistant coach with the Dukes. Prior to that, he was an assistant coach at JMU for the 2007-08 season under former head coach Dean Keener.

“I’m very excited,” Rowe said. “I’m obviously committed to this staff, the program, and the university. I’m looking forward to getting to work.”

Rowe played at JMU from 1993-95 and was a member of the Dukes’ 1994 Colonial Athletic Association championship team. He earned All-CAA honors as a team captain in 1994-95 when he averaged 21.7 points per game, a figure that still ranks as JMU’s fifth-best varsity season scoring mark.

Brown, an assistant at Colgate the past two years, is herself a former Duke, having played for the Dukes from 2006-08 after transferring to JMU from Pittsburgh. In her junior season in 2006-07, JMU compiled a 27-6 record, was runner-up in the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament, earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament and was ranked as high as 22nd in the Associated Press Top 25 poll and as high as 25th in the USA Today Top 25 poll. As a senior in 2007-08, Brown was a starting forward on the Dukes’ team that put together a 24-10 record, advanced to the round of 16 of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament, and received votes during the season in both Top 25 polls.

She ranked third on the team in rebounding as a senior tri-captain, averaging 6.7 rebounds per game, and she ranked sixth in blocked shots (1.2) and ninth in rebounding among CAA players. She also averaged 9.2 points per contest in 2007-08. Brown received a number of academic awards that season, including the Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar Award, CAA All-Academic second-team honors and the CAA Commissioners Academic Award. She was also named a Strength and Conditioning All-America by the National Strength and Conditioning Association, received the JMU team’s Courage Award, and was selected to participate in Nike’s So You Want to Be a Coach Program.