Previous CU Buffs airfoil D'Shawn Schwartz creates it official with transfer to George Mason

This is an interesting piece by Pat Rooney from The Denver Post talking about some important news items for the week. Pat Rooney recently posted the article and I decided it was well worth syndicating here.

The fit perhaps runs deeper than simply getting an unexpected opportunity to play for a well-liked coach.

Now D’Shawn Schwartz will get at least two more shots at Dayton before his college basketball career is complete.

On Thursday, a natural move that has been rumored for the better part of a week became official, as Colorado native and former Buffaloes basketball standout D’Shawn Schwartz announced via his Twitter account he will use his extra, final season of eligibility at George Mason.

Last week, well-liked former CU assistant Kim English was named the new head coach at George Mason. English was part of CU head coach Tad Boyle’s staff for two seasons, Schwartz’s freshman and sophomore seasons of 2017-18 and 2018-19.

According to gmuhoops.com, English also is on the verge of finalizing the hiring of Nate Tomlinson as an assistant coach. A former player for the Buffs, Tomlinson has spent two seasons as the Buffs’ Director of Player Development. English, who spent the past two seasons as an assistant at Tennessee, developed a close relationship with Tomlinson, and the duo have been credited for finalizing the made-on-the-fly agreement for Colorado and Tennessee to play in December, along with games in each of the next two seasons.

Schwartz, from Colorado Springs, played four seasons at CU, but like all college basketball players he was granted an extra season of eligibility by the NCAA for enduring the sport’s pandemic season of 2020-21.

George Mason plays in the Atlantic 10 Conference and Schwartz enjoyed two of the biggest games of his CU career against one of his new league foes, Dayton. In the first round of the NIT in 2019, Schwartz hit a career-high while scoring 19 points in a Buffs win. The following season, he again hit five 3-pointers while scoring 20 points in a win against No. 13 Dayton in Chicago.

During CU’s rout of Georgetown in the first round of the NCAA Tournament , Schwartz became the 37th member of CU’s career 1,000-point club, scoring 18 points while matching his career-high with five 3-pointers — his only five 3-pointer game against a team not named Dayton. Schwartz finished his CU career tied for 34th all-time in scoring (1,026), seventh in 3-pointers (156), and ninth in games played (128).

Schwartz authored two of CU’s biggest shots of the past few seasons, drilling a buzzer-beating 3-pointer in overtime to topple Dayton in that matchup in Chicago last year. He also recorded a game-winning tip-dunk against USC with 3.3 seconds remaining in the Pac-12 semifinals on March 12.

George Mason went 13-9 this year before losing to Davidson in the second round of the Atlantic 10 tournament.