D'Shawn Schwartz's new shooting stroke is paying dividends

BOULDER — D’Shawn Schwartz’s 2019-20 campaign will likely be best remembered for one shot.

As the overtime buzzer sounded, Schwartz threw up a 3-pointer that gave the Colorado Buffaloes a 78-76 win over the No. 13 Dayton Flyers.

That was just one of the 32 3-pointers the junior has drained through 16 games this season. He’s on pace to blow his previous season-high of 41 out of the water and his percentage from deep has jumped more than 10 points this year, to just over 43%.

Schwartz credits one offseason to tweak for the improvement: He’s putting more arc on the ball.

“The rim gets a little bit bigger when you shoot it higher,” Schwartz said. ”

The process was tricky. He had to work in the weight room to get strong enough to consistently shoot the ball higher but the toughest part was changing his muscle memory. He’d been shooting the basketball the same way his entire life.

Schwartz has been hot for most of the season. He mentioned after the win over Prairie View A&M that he feels like as soon as he makes a shot, the rest are going to fall for him. The key is seeing the first one hit.

But in back-to-back games, Schwartz has been unable to make a three. He’s missed seven in a row, though he did knock down a shot with his toe on the line against Utah.

The cold streak doesn’t change how he approaches the game.

“I just keep shooting it until I make one, then once that one goes in I just try to keep shooting those,” Schwartz said.

Schwartz isn’t concerned by his dry speel and neither is head coach Tad Boyle. Both say that taking good shots is the key to seeing more fall.

“Sometimes it just isn’t going in but I’m not worried about that,” Schwartz said. “I’m still going to find other ways to get involved.”

And Schwartz hs found plenty of ways to stay involved.

He dropped 14 points on 6-of-13 shooting, as well as grabbing six boards. Three of his misses were from deep.

“A lot of guys were threats (to score) so it opened it up for me a little more,” Schwartz said.

For Schwartz, the most interesting part is missing shots in practice. Those turn into misses in games.

The trip to Arizona this weekend to take on the Arizona State Sun Devils on Thursday and the Arizona Wildcats on Saturday. Schwartz, who is from Grand Junction, said that his parents typically make this road trip. Schwartz himself says that this is his favorite road swing of the year.

So, all signs are pointing toward the junior getting his shot back on track.

“I think it’ll be fine,” Schwartz said.