Louis Rowe was named assistant coach on July 2, 2021, returning to the Bay area where his playing and coaching career began. He most recently spent four seasons as the head coach at JMU prior to his arrival at South Florida.
A St. Petersburg native, Rowe had coaching stints at Osecola High School (2005-06) and Dixie Hollins High School (2006-07) in Florida before making the move to the collegiate ranks.
In his first season at South Florida in 2021-22, Rowe was instrumental in the development of Russel Tchewa and Corey Walker Jr. into becoming one of the best frontcourt tandems in the American Athletic Conference. The Bulls ranked second in the AAC and 45th in the NCAA in scoring defense that season (64.9 ppg).
Rowe spent 2007-12 as an assistant coach at his alma mater, James Madison University. After one season at Rider, he served as an assistant coach at Florida International from 2013-15. From 2015-16, Rowe was the top assistant at Bowling Green before returning to JMU as head coach in 2016.
Rowe first served JMU as a graduate assistant and assistant coach from 2007-12 under head coaches Dean Keener and Matt Brady. He acted as an assistant coach for the 2007-08 campaign, which saw the Dukes win their most games in five years, before pursuing his master's degree from JMU as a graduate assistant under Coach Brady from 2008-10.
After being elevated to assistant coach for the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons, Rowe helped lead the Dukes to 33 wins and worked closely with forward Denzel Bowles, who set a JMU single-season record with 290 rebounds and became the program's first Mid-Major All-American before beginning his professional career in Lithuania and earning an opportunity in the NBA Summer League.
During the 2015-16 season, Rowe served in the lead assistant role for Bowling Green, working primarily with the Falcons' perimeter players as the team advanced to the Mid-American Conference semifinals. He guided guards Zack Denny and Wes Alcegaire to double-digit scoring seasons, as the duo averaged 10.6 and 10.2 points per game, respectively.
In his two years at FIU, Rowe helped guide the Panthers to 31 wins from 2013-15 and worked closely with Adrian Diaz, who was named to the Conference USA All-Defensive Team in 2014-15 while setting a school record with 99 blocks, a mark that ranked sixth in the country.
Rowe also spent one year at Rider, where he helped guide the Broncos to a 19-15 record and a berth in the 2013 CollegeInsider.com Tournament.
A former standout at Lakewood High School (St. Petersburg), Rowe was Lon Kruger’s first recruit at the University of Florida and played two seasons for the Gators before transferring to James Madison University where finished a decorated career. In two JMU seasons, Rowe logged 1,055 points (17.9 per game), 315 rebounds (5.3 per game), 177 assists (3.0 per game), 48 steals (0.8 per game) and 80 blocked shots (1.4 per game). He ranks fourth on JMU's career scoring average list and eighth on its career blocked shots list. He was a 52.2 percent career shooter from the field (409-of-783), was a 73.5 percent career shooter from the foul line (191-of-260) and connected on 46 career 3-point field goals.
Rowe was a two-time All-CAA selection and led the Dukes to a CAA Tournament title and NCAA Tournament appearance in 1994 under “Lefty” Driesell before beginning a professional playing career in Europe which lasted from 199-2004. He won championships with Sweden (1995-96) and Belgium (1999-2000) during that period.
