During his team’s thrilling overtime win against Dayton in Chicago on Dec. 21, Colorado men’s basketball coach Tad Boyle bucked a trend throughout his 10-year tenure as the leader of the Buffaloes.
After junior wing D’Shawn Schwartz suffered his second foul just 4 minutes, 29 seconds into the contest, Boyle, as he typically does in those situations, sent Schwartz to the bench. However, instead of keeping Schwartz there until the second half, which is Boyle’s usual mode of operation, he re-inserted Schwartz with about 10 minutes remaining in the first half, setting the stage for Schwartz’s big finish.
Schwartz again was saddled with early foul trouble on Sunday against Oregon State, but this time he remained on the bench for the remainder of the first half. Schwartz never got back on track, enduring one of his worst games of the season as the visiting Beavers rallied late to stun CU in the final minutes.
Asked this week if re-inserting Schwartz in the first half might have helped one of the Buffs’ most explosive players, and one who had been riding a recent hot streak, get back on track before the frustrating finish, Boyle noted the different circumstances between the OSU game and the Dayton game.
“That’s really the key — do we need him?” Boyle said. “Those guys that are playing when D’Shawn is out, are they giving us good minutes? If the answer is yes, let’s ride them. Because Daylen (Kountz) needs more minutes to get kind of in the flow of things, and Maddox (Daniels) needs more minutes to get more experience.
“D’Shawn has to be mentally tough. It’s about what does the team need? D’Shawn is one of those guys who has played heavy minutes. He’s played in big games. The experience factor with D’Shawn I don’t worry about. The experience factor with Daylen and Maddox I worry about a little bit. It’s a need-based thing. When I look back at the Oregon State game I second-guess a couple of things. That’s not one of them.”
When Schwartz exited the Dayton game, the Buffs trailed 12-5 and the deficit grew to 19-5 before the Buffs rallied. When he returned the Flyers’ lead was down to six, and Schwartz was able to hit two 3-pointers before halftime, finding the range that led to a 7-for-11 effort overall with a 5-for-7 mark on 3-pointers — the last of which defeated Dayton at the overtime buzzer.
Schwartz exited the Oregon State game with 11:44 remaining in the first half and didn’t return until after halftime with the Buffs leading by seven points. He finished with just four points, all after halftime, and went 0-for-4 on 3-pointers while also committing two of the Buffs’ four turnovers in the final four minutes.
Schwartz will attempt to repeat what he did exactly one month ago when the Buffs host Utah on Sunday (4 p.m., ESPNU) by bouncing back from a rough outing. After going 2-for-12 overall and 0-for-7 on 3-pointers in a loss at Kansas on Dec. 7, Schwartz rebounded to go 18-for-33 on 3-pointers (.545) in the next five games before suffering the cold spell against Oregon State.
“I want to play. Obviously we do need to get better, and we have a lot of things to work on, but as a player you just want to get back out there and get that taste out of your mouth,” Schwartz said. “I think we just need to refresh a little bit and just kind of move on from that loss, and try not to create the same mistakes. Short-term memory. Stick to what works and keep moving forward.”
