Men's Basketball
- Title:
- Associate Head Coach
- Email:
- mikeschwartz@tennessee.edu
THE SCHWARTZ FILE
Personal Information
Full Name: Michael Leon SchwartzBorn: Sept. 25, 1976, in Los Angeles, Calif.
Hometown: Los Angeles, Calif.
High School: Beverly Hills High School
College: Texas, 1999
Wife: Stephanie
Children: Sydney and Samantha
Coaching Experience
- 1999-2001:
Texas, graduate assistant - 2001-02:
Long Beach State, operations/video assistant - 2002-04:
Texas, video coordinator - 2004-05:
Texas-San Antonio, assistant coach - 2005-07:
Miami (Fla.), coordinator of basketball ops - 2007-11:
Miami (Fla.), assistant coach - 2011-14:
Fresno State, assistant coach - 2014-15:
Fresno State, associate head coach - 2015-16:
Tulsa, assistant coach - 2016-19:
Tennessee, assistant coach - 2019-Present:
Tennessee, associate head coach
SCHWARTZ'S NBA PLAYERS
| Year | Name, Pos | Round (Overall) | Team |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Guillermo Diaz, G | 2nd (52) | Los Angeles Clippers |
| 2006 | Robert Hite, G | Free Agent | Miami |
| 2009 | Jack McClinton, G | 2nd (51) | San Antonio |
| 2010 | Dwayne Collins, F | 2nd 60) | Phoenix |
| 2012 | DeQuan Jones, F | Free Agent | Orlando |
| 2014 | Tyler Johnson, G | Free Agent | Miami |
| 2016 | Shaq Harrison, G | Free Agent | Phoenix |
| 2017 | Paul Watson Jr., G | Free Agent | Toronto |
| 2019 | Grant Williams, F | 1st (22) | Boston |
| 2019 | Admiral Schofield, G/F | 2nd (42) | Philadelphia |
| 2019 | Jordan Bone, G | 2nd (57) | New Orleans |
| 2019 | Kyle Alexander, F | Free Agent | Miami |
| 2021 | Keon Johnson, G | 1st (21) | New York |
| 2021 | Jaden Springer, G | 1st (28) | Philadelphia |
| 2021 | Yves Pons, F | Free Agent | Memphis |
Schwartz signed or coached each of the players listed above
SCHWARTZ'S McDONALD'S ALL-AMERICANS
| Year | Name, Pos |
|---|---|
| 2019 | Josiah-Jordan James, G |
| 2020 | Jaden Springer, G |
| 2021 | Kennedy Chandler, G |
Schwartz led or assisted in the recruitment of each player listed above.
One of the most versatile and well-rounded assistant coaches in college basketball, Michael Schwartz enters his sixth season on Tennessee’s staff in 2021-22 and his third as associate head coach.
He has 20 games of NCAA Tournament experience under his belt as either a coach or administrative staff member. And in the fall of 2019, Schwartz earned feature placement on The Athletic’s list of the nation’s top 25 up-and-coming college basketball coaches.
As a full-time assistant coach, Schwartz has impacted the development of 15 players who have gone on to play in the NBA. That includes five draft picks in the last three years.
Schwartz’s close ties to Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes—along with his 22 years of coast-to-coast coaching experience in the Division I ranks—make the Los Angeles native a perfect fit in Knoxville. The Vols have appeared in three straight NCAA Tournaments.
“Mike was one of our first G.A.’s at Texas, and he’s always been a guy I knew I wanted to bring back on my staff,” Barnes said shortly after Schwartz’s hiring in 2016. “It was a quick and easy choice. I love everything about him. He’s the whole package. He fits in with our staff and he’s got a great family.”
Barnes entrusted Schwartz with the role of defensive coordinator for each of the last four seasons, a move that has yielded extraordinary results, as the Vols own a 92-38 record dating to the start of the 2017-18 campaign. And last season, Tennessee posted the nation’s fourth-best defensive efficiency rating, per KenPom.com—its second top-10 finish in the last four years.
In addition, Schwartz’s brilliance schemes have resulted in the Vols leading the SEC in scoring defense in both 2018 (65.7 ppg) and 2021 (63.5 ppg).
Schwartz’s leadership was instrumental in guiding the Big Orange to the 2018 regular-season SEC Championship, an appearance in the 2018 SEC Tournament Championship Game and a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament, where the Vols advanced to the second round.
Tennessee’s defensive statistics during that 2017-18 season stood among the top programs nationally. The Vols led the SEC in scoring defense and ranked sixth nationally in KenPom’s defensive efficiency ratings.
There was no drop-off in 2018-19. Tennessee led the SEC in field-goal percentage defense (.393) and blocks per game (5.4 bpg). The team’s 199 total blocks stood as a school record. The Vols held 17 opponents to fewer than 70 points and eight opponents to fewer than 60. And three Vols who benefited from Schwartz's tutelage were selected in the 2019 NBA Draft.
For four consecutive weeks—in the midst of a school-record 19-game win streak—Tennessee stood atop the AP Top 25 rankings. During that span, McDonald’s All-American Josiah-Jordan James signed with UT, validating Schwartz’s years of tireless effort as the elite guard’s primary recruiter.
The Big Orange earned a No. 2 seed for the 2019 NCAA Tournament, advanced to the Sweet Sixteen and finished the season ranked fifth in the coaches’ poll.
In 2019-20, Schwartz’s defensive schemes saw UT lead the SEC in blocks while ranking second in scoring defense during league play. And junior forward Yves Pons, another standout recruited by Schwartz, was named the 2020 SEC Defensive Player of the Year—the first Tennessee player ever to win the award.
Tennessee finished the 2020-21 season with the nation’s fourth-rated defensive efficiency, per KenPom, while ranking 13th nationally in defensive turnover percentage—forcing turnovers on 22.8 percent of its opponents’ possessions.
Schwartz has handled the scouting duties for 30 wins over the past four seasons, including triumphs over 15th-ranked Kansas, 18th-ranked Purdue, two wins over Kentucky (both on the road), six wins over Florida and South Carolina, two victories vs. Georgia Tech and a win against Wright State in the NCAA Tournament.
An outstanding scout and floor coach, Schwartz played a key role in the development of Tennessee’s 2016-17 freshman class, which was responsible for 44 percent of the team’s scoring that season and finished the year as the highest-scoring crop of freshmen in program history (1,040 points). Forward Grant Williams anchored that class and developed into a two-time SEC Player of the Year, a consensus first-team All-American and a first-round NBA Draft pick.
Michael and Stephanie Schwartz, along with their daughters, Sydney and Samantha.
Schwartz spent the 2015-16 season as an assistant coach, offensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator at Tulsa, helping the Golden Hurricane advance to the NCAA Tournament. Prior to that, he spent four seasons as the lead assistant under Rodney Terry (another former Barnes assistant) at Fresno State, including one year as associate head coach.
Shouldering responsibility for Fresno’s in-game coordination, recruiting, scouting and skill development, Schwartz helped guide the Bulldogs to their first 20-win season and postseason appearance in seven years—the finals of the College Basketball Invitational—in 2013-14. That same year, Paul Watson was named Mountain West Freshman of the Year and selected to the Kyle Macy Freshman All-American Team.
Fresno State produced an NBA guard during Schwartz’s time on staff there, as Tyler Johnson (2011-14) has spent the past two seasons with the Miami Heat. During Johnson’s three seasons with Schwartz on staff at FSU, his scoring average, field-goal percentage, 3-point percentage and free-throw percentage all improved each year.
Schwartz also helped spearhead the assembly of some of Fresno State’s highest-rated recruiting classes. The Bulldogs beat out several Pac 12 schools to sign shooting guard Marvelle Harris, who in 2016 became Fresno’s all-time leading scorer, the Mountain West Player of the Year and also earned Associated Press All-American acclaim.
No stranger to the Southeast and East Coast, Schwartz spent six years on staff at Miami (Fla.) in the Atlantic Coast Conference—the first two as Coordinator of Basketball Operations and the final four as a full-time assistant coach.
As an assistant in Coral Gables, Schwartz helped lead the Hurricanes to an 83-52 record, appearances in the top-25 rankings and three postseason appearances in four years. His impact was immense during Miami’s historic 2007-08 campaign, which included the second-most wins in school history (23), a school-record 14 home wins and a program-best fifth-place finish in the ACC.
Miami earned a No. 7 seed in the 2008 NCAA Tournament and defeated St. Mary’s before falling to Barnes’ No. 2-seeded Texas squad in the second round.
In Schwartz’s operations role at Miami, he handled video responsibilities, film breakdown, opponent scouting, oversight of recruiting mailings and served as a liaison with the program’s managerial staff.
Schwartz’s tenure in South Florida was preceded by a one-year stint as an assistant coach at the University of Texas at San Antonio, a position he attained after working as Barnes’ video coordinator at Texas for two seasons.
While working in a full-time capacity alongside Barnes at Texas, Schwartz was a part of a Longhorns program that posted a two-year record of 51-15, produced a pair NBA Draft picks (guards T.J. Ford and Royal Ivey) and advanced to the 2003 Final Four and the 2004 Sweet Sixteen.
Following his prep career at Beverly Hills High School, Schwartz played two seasons of college basketball at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, California. He then transferred to Texas where he concluded his playing career and was a member of Barnes’ 1999 Big 12 championship team. After Schwartz earned his degree in Speech Communication Studies from Texas in 1999, Barnes appointed Schwartz to a graduate assistant position, which he held from 1999-2001.
Schwartz also boasts valuable experience with USA Basketball, having served in a support capacity for the 2000 USA Youth Development Festival, the 2000 USA National Select Team—coached by Mike Jarvis and Bob Huggins and featuring future NBA stars Shane Battier and Jason Richardson—and the 2001 Young Men’s World Championship Trials.
Schwartz and his wife, Stephanie, have two daughters: Sydney and Samantha.
