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COLORADO SPRINGS – “Our best recutting class at Colorado, since our staff has been here, not our biggest but our best,” Tad Boyle touted early Wednesday as Evan Battey, Tyler Bey and D’Shawn Schwartz inked their National Letters of Intent to join the Buffaloes for the 2017-18 season.
The scene outside of the Colorado Buffaloes gym and inside the high school’s of the three signees was much different as their dreams of being a Division-I basketball player had been realized.
Across the state at Sand Creek High School, Colorado’s best prospect according to many was signing his way up the Boulder-Denver turnpike.
“D’Shawn is a local kid we’re very excited about, good body, can shoot, pass and dribble it,” Tad Boyle said.” He’s had a lot of great experiences with USA Basketball which is gonna help him transition to the college game. It’s always nice to get, who we think is, the best player in the state of Colorado.”
Schwartz decked out in a buffs jacket and black and gold Jordan’s was surround by family, friends, alumni and teammates. Each group taking their turns to hug and congratulate him prior to even signing, along with a handful of teachers and coaches from as far back as sixth grade. Throughout the high school students and teachers stuck around after school to send their star Scorpion to Boulder.
Coaches were emphatic about Schwartz potential for dominance in the Pac-12, saying “he does all the right things.”
Coach Robert Hawkins said Schwartz has an incredible personality and a work ethic, “through the roof.” He also told that Schwartz is an extremely coachable player that is constantly curious about basketball. He hinted that he is better than Reggie Jackson, who of course comes from the same area. Schwartz has been dubbed “honor roll” with his 4.2 GPA and people took their turn commenting on his smarts to go along with athletic prowess.
Trainer Trey Harris goes back to when Schwartz was in seventh grade.
“We did extreme workouts and he consistently performed them and performed them well,” Harris said.
Harris continued stating that his trainee is a very complete player. He always wanted to play in Pac-12, and soon will. They set a timeline in eighth grade starting with High School then D-1 then NBA.
When asked about Schwartz’ sharp skills Harris told, “he Handles like he’s 5’8″ but can shoot, pass, post up and rebound.”
Harris also thinks Schwartz has a very high ceiling, believing he could potentially be Drafted after his third year at CU, citing another Colorado Springs product in Reggie Jackson.
While hype can cloud judgment on such a fortuitous day, from the perspective of an 18-year-old the sky is the limit. And heck, Schwartz just accomplished one of his once-lofty goals so why not another as seeks to be a CU great.
BSN Denver’s Trevor McKinney contributed to this story
