KNOXVILLE - The Tennessee men's basketball program finally confirmed what last week became a poorly kept secret.
The Volunteers on Monday morning announced the hiring of Tulsa assistant coach Michael Schwartz to replace Chris Ogden on second-year coach Rick Barnes' staff.
Schwartz's final season as a player at Texas in 1999 was Barnes' first season as the coach of the Longhorns, and he spent two separate stints working for Barnes as a graduate assistant (1999-2001) and the video coordinator (2002-04).
"Mike was one of our GAs at Texas, and he's always been a guy I knew I wanted to bring back on my staff," Barnes said in Tennessee's release. "This 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. We're all excited."
Tennessee men's head basketball coach Rick Barnes hired former Tulsa assistant coach Michael Schwartz to replace Chris Ogden on Monday.Schwartz worked for Frank Haith at Miami and Tulsa and also spent five seasons at Fresno State, the last one as associate head coach.
With FSU's Bulldogs he was the lead assistant under Rodney Terry, another former Barnes assistant. Fresno State had its first 20-win season and made its first postseason appearance in seven seasons in 2013-14. Schwartz also helped develop current Miami Heat guard Tyler Johnson while at Fresno.
Following his second stint at Texas, Schwartz spent one season at Texas-San Antonio before joining Haith, another former Texas assistant, at Miami in 2005 as the Hurricanes' coordinator of basketball operations.
Haith, a former Missouri head coach, promoted Schwartz to a full-time assistant coaching role in 2007, and Miami made one NCAA tournament and two NIT appearances the next four years.
In Schwartz's lone season at Tulsa, the Golden Hurricane made the NCAA tournament.
Between his Texas stints, Schwartz, a Los Angeles native who began his playing career at Sonoma State, held support staff positions at Long Beach State and with USA Basketball, which allowed him to work with a youth team coached by Bob Huggins and Mike Jarvis.
Ogden, who had worked for Barnes since playing for him from 2000 to 2003, left the Vols earlier this month to join former Arkansas-Little Rock coach Chris Beard's staff at UNLV.
Beard was hired by Texas Tech on Friday to replace new Memphis coach Tubby Smith, and Ogden is set to follow Beard to Lubbock, which is less than 100 miles from his hometown of Seminole, although no staff hirings there have been made official.
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.