[MEDIA:1530517]

He finished 3rd among the league leaders [19.2 ppg.), first in free throw percentage (.921) and second in 3-point field goals made (102). His FT% ranked 3rd nationally and his three pt FGM (102) ranked 13th.

In 2013-14, Rowsey led the BIG South in scoring (20.3 ppg.), which was the second-highest scoring average for a freshman in the nation.

As a senior at Rockbridge High School, he was named the Virginia Player of the Year after averaging 35.8 points per game including a 60-point game against Stuarts Draft. Rowsey finished his career with 2,637 points, the second-highest total ever in the state of Virginia.

In the June press release, MU head coach Steve Wojciechowski said. “We are thrilled to add Andrew to the Marquette basketball family. He has already excelled on the court at the NCAA Division I level and has shown the ability to shoot and score at an elite level. He also has great toughness and is a tremendous competitor and we believe he will be an integral part of our program as we move forward.”

I asked Travis Diener, MU Director of Player Personnel about Rowsey and he was fired up to add him to the team. Here is my interview with Travis…

DOS: A big acquisition for the Marquette program was finding shooting combo guard Andrew Rouse the transfer from North Carolina – Ashville. What went into finding him, recruiting him and getting him to commit?

Travis Diener: Andrew had two really productive seasons at NC-Ashville. He really had a knack for scoring the ball not just shooting but scoring. I think after two years, he wanted to go to a bigger school and see if he could compete at that level. When we got word that he was transferring, it was all hands on board to try to get him. We were interested because of the uniqueness of his game. It is hard to find guys who can score and he can.

DOS: Was Wojo familiar with him from his days at Duke?

TD: I believe in Andrew’s freshman year they played at Duke. Coach was very familiar with him as was (MU Asst coach)Brett (Nelson) so he was the one who kind of got the ball rolling. Ever since he has been on campus, he is always working in the gym, always working on his craft. Now Andrew has a full year to work on his body and his individual game as well as learning our system and he is going to have a big two years here for us. Unfortunately he is going to have to sit out a year but we are expecting big things from him. In the past two years, Marquette has struggled to shoot the ball from the outside and his skill set will transfer over very well for us in the future.

DOS: Is he similar to a Rotnei Clark from Butler? You might have missed Clark when you were playing in Italy but three years ago he hit a circus shot to beat Marquette in Maui and Marquette had to do everything they could to shut him down in that big win down in Lexington over Butler to get to the Sweet 16.

TD: That’s the exact same comparison that Brett Nelson made when describing him. I think that is very accurate. Brett coached Rotnei Clark down in Arkansas before he transferred to Butler. Andrew is driven to be great and I cannot stress that enough. It is hard to find guys like that. He wants to be great. I think people at Marquette should be extremely excited to what he is going to be able to do. He is not tall and he is very unique in a way in that he is crafty. He can score. He gets fouled and he can make free throws. He can hit shots. He would very fun to watch. We are really happy that we got him.