Rowe Picks Up A Pair Of Commitments

HARRISONBURG — A big recruiting weekend across several sports, centered around a packed house and blowout victory for the James Madison football team, also went well for the hardwood Dukes.

JMU men's basketball coach Louis Rowe picked up a pair of verbal commitments from high school seniors in town for visits.

Mike Fowler, a 6-foot-9, 220-pound high school senior from Greensboro Day School in North Carolina, was the first to announce his plans to join the Dukes. He was followed shortly by Quinn Richey, a 6-5 shooting guard from Mount Pisgah Christian in Alpharetta, Ga. Fowler was also considering East Carolina, High Point, Lipscomb and Bucknell.

Sharing the ball with four other Division I prospects, including Clemson signee John Newman and Virginia commitment Carson McCorkle, Fowler didn’t put up huge offensive numbers on Greensboro Day’s Class 3A state championship team, but has shown an ability to knock down 3-pointers and is an excellent post defender.

“I talked to him right before he was going to commit,” Greensboro Day coach Freddy Johnson said. “He said he had a great visit and I basically told him if he really felt comfortable there he should go with this decision. Mike is young for his grade and can really shoot the basketball and he was a key for us, especially defensively.”

He should help add depth in the front court with big man Develle Phillips playing his final season for JMU this winter. Fowler went head-to-head with five-star recruit Jaylen Hoard in the state title game and held the Wake Forest signee scoreless and limited Hoard to four rebounds. Richey, considered one of the top spot-up 3-point shooters in the 2019 class, averaged 19.1 points and four rebounds per game as a junior and was being recruited by Mississippi State, Middle Tennessee and Rice, among others. But Richey was sold on JMU during his official visit to Harrisonburg over the weekend.

“It was awesome,” Richey said. “The football game was great. I got to hang out with the players quite a bit. It’s a great environment and I really liked it. The coaching staff started recruiting me a while back and I’ve been hearing from one of the coaches there almost every day. They believe in me and I believe in them.”

The coming weeks will continue to be important for the Dukes on the recruiting trail. Richey said the JMU coaching staff indicated they’d like to haul in at least one more commitment this fall for the 2019 class and couple of in-state wings are scheduled to visit soon.

Michael Christmas, a 6-6 three-star prospect from from Landstown High School in Virginia Beach visited Old Dominion over the weekend and is scheduled to be at JMU the weekend of Oct. 5. Christmas had an in-home visit with the Dukes coaches last month and an unofficial visit to JMU in the summer. He’s also taken unofficial visits to George Mason, Quinnipiac, Siena and Longwood.

Julien Wooden, a super-athletic small forward from Northside High in Roanoke, is also scheduled to take a visit to JMU. Wooden is 6-6, 190 pounds with a nearly 6-9 wingspan and reportedly has scholarship offers from Liberty, Richmond, George Mason, Florida International and others.

Rowe and his staff have also spent plenty of time on the road the past few weeks looking at prospects for the Class of 2020. JMU coaches were recently in the Washington DC area, where they watched workouts at Bishop O’Connell and Gonzaga high schools.

The Dukes have been pursuing Bishop O’Connell point guard Marcus Dockery, who also picked up an offer from Maryland last week. Gonzaga coach Stephen Turner said JMU coaches had been in to watch 2020 guards Carlos Hubb and Anwar Gill, along with 2021 wing Malcolm Dread.

JMU is also among several schools, including Georgetown, UConn and Drexel, to extend an offer to Baltimore point guard Adrian “Ace” Baldwin.