Photo by Ryan Messier/Paint Touches
A few weeks back, I made a joke on Twitter that Andrew Rowsey and Markus Howard play tag to see who gets to score 30 points depending on where the game was played. You’re it, my turn, back to you.
This was back on Jan. 9, when Rowsey had scored 30+ in 3 home Big East games and Howard had scored 30+ in the 2 road Big East games. It was a quirky stat that came out of nowhere and I figured would dissipate just as quickly.
But here we are at the end of January and Home Rowsey, Road Howard has become more of a thing than ever.
In 5 home games Rowsey is playing like an All-American while Howard… is not.
| Home | Points | Assists | Min | 3FGM | 3FGA | 2FGM | 2FGA | eFG% | TO | Ortg |
| Rowsey | 27.4 | 3.8 | 33.6 | 4.6 | 10.6 | 3.4 | 7 | 58.5% | 2.8 | 124.8 |
| Howard | 11.6 | 3.2 | 26.4 | 2 | 6.6 | 2.4 | 7.2 | 39.1% | 2.8 | 87.2 |
Rowsey is scoring over 27 points a game with an Ortg at 124.8 in 33 minutes. Five games doesn’t a whole season make, but over a 5 game stretch, that’s about as good as it gets. Howard is scoring under 12 a game at home in Big East play but the Ortg at 87.2 and minutes at 26.4 are the most surprising. Both are far below his season and career average. It’s an anomaly.
And then you see the road splits.
| Road | Points | Assists | Min | 3FGM | 3FGA | 2FGM | 2FGA | eFG% | TO | Ortg |
| Rowsey | 11.25 | 3.75 | 30.25 | 1 | 5.75 | 1 | 5 | 23.3% | 2.25 | 89.25 |
| Howard | 34 | 3.75 | 37.75 | 4.75 | 11.5 | 7.5 | 11.75 | 62.9% | 2 | 127.75 |
Howard and Rowsey swap Ortgs while Howard adds another dash of points. Again, 4 games aren’t a particularly indicative sample size of anything, but seeing these type of splits over 9 games is pretty rare. One great home game from Howard or one great road game from Rowsey would mitigate a lot of these extremes when we are talking about a 4 and 5 game sample size. But it hasn’t happened yet.
I’ve tried for a few days to get at the why with absolutely no success.
Looking at their shot charts hasn’t made things much clearer. Howard is finishing at the rim at 65% on the road, but only 34% at home. And that’s with 11 more attempts, too. I don’t have an explanation for this, it’s just whacky.
Rowsey shoots 35% points better at home near the rim, and the percentages from behind the arc speak for themselves.
I can see the argument that one of them takes a back seat when they see the other heating up, but the way the games have played out doesn’t really show that this is what happening.
I don’t know what it is, I doubt it will remain this way for the rest of the season, but it was too good not to expand into a little post.
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