Ahead of his second stint with Team Colorado, former CU Buffs guard/forward D’Shawn Schwartz is playing some of the best basketball of his life.
During this week’s training camp for The Basketball Tournament, Schwartz stood out as one of the team’s top scorers, a familiar role for the lefty shooter. Team Colorado head coach and current CU men’s basketball assistant coach Zach Ruebesam believes Schwartz is playing with plenty of confidence heading into Saturday’s opening game.
“The TBT is so hard because someone could go for 30 points one night and it might be another guy the next night,” Ruebesam said. “But, D’Shawn’s been saying he’s playing the best basketball of his career right now, which you see when he’s out there. He’s very comfortable, he knows what he’s looking for, he’s shooting very confidently. I expect him to play a lot and expect to have a big impact on our team.”
After losing in heartbreaking fashion to the Men of Mackey (Purdue alumni) last year, Schwartz is looking to bounce back from the eight points, 10 rebounds and three assists he had in that first-round defeat. With Schwartz’s confidence flourishing, he’s also looking to learn from his teammates who have NBA experience.
“(I’ve) really been working on building that confidence back in my shot off the dribble, coming off a lot more ball screens, coming up on off-ball screens,” Schwartz said. “Learning from other guys, talking to George King, (Andre) Roberson and getting as much knowledge from these guys, I think that’s what it’s about.”
The 6-foot-7 forward spent this past year with Le Mans Sarthe Basket in France’s Betclic Elite circuit, the same league that produced recent top overall NBA draft picks Victor Wembenyama and Zaccharie Risacher. Schwartz averaged 7.8 points, 3.0 rebounds and 0.8 assists per game on 39.7% shooting from the field (35.8% from deep) in 34 regular season games.
Schwartz and Team Colorado take on Purple Reign (Kansas State alumni) in round one of the TBT on Saturday at 1 p.m. MT on FS2.
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