East Carolina University has announced a contract extension for men’s head basketball coach Michael Schwartz.
The extension is for one year and takes his contract through the 2027-28 season.
Below is more information from ECU Sports Information.
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Photo credit: Michael Schwartz (ECU Sports Information photo)
East Carolina University has announced a one-year extension of men’s basketball head coach Michael Schwartz through the 2027-28 season. The contract extension was approved by the ECU Board of Trustees on Friday and announced by ECU Director of Athletics Jon Gilbert on Saturday.
“We are really encouraged about the direction of our basketball program under the leadership of Mike Schwartz and his staff,” Gilbert said. “Coming off the most regular season wins in the program’s history, we are both committed to elevating our men’s basketball program to even greater heights moving forward. In this new era of collegiate athletics, Mike has brought a clear vision and detailed plan to put ECU in the best possible position to acquire top talent and build a program that we can all be proud of.”
In Schwartz’s third season at the helm, the Pirates compiled an overall record of 19-14, marking the first winning season for the program since 2012-13 and the most regular season wins in the program’s Division I history. ECU also tallied a 10-8 mark in American Athletic Conference play with the 10 conference victories being the most for the Pirates since joining the league prior to the 2014-15 season and the first time the program has recorded double-digit conference wins since the 1974-75 season.
“I am very appreciative of Chancellor Rogers and Jon Gilbert for their loyal support of our basketball program,” Schwartz said. “I love being a Pirate and being a part of this great community. We know the hard work and dedication it takes to win at a high level, and we have a staff and a group of young men committed to our vision. We are continuing to add pieces to our roster for the upcoming season and the young men we are bringing into our program are of high character who will be great additions to our culture.”
Schwartz coached RJ Felton and C.J. Walker to all-conference first team selections in 2024-25 which marked the first time in the program’s Division I history that the Pirates had two all-conference first team players in the same season. Felton finished his Pirate career as the third all-time scorer in program history with 1,774 career points and was the first ECU player to be unanimously selected to The American’s All-Conference First Team.
The Pirates have won a game in the American Athletic Men’s Basketball Conference Tournament in all three of Schwartz’s seasons as head coach. Prior to Schwartz’s arrival in Greenville, the Pirates had only won two games in the conference tournament in eight seasons. East Carolina has ranked in the top five in The American in all seasons under Schwartz in offensive rebounding and the Pirates have been in the top five in steals per game in two of Schwartz’s three seasons as head coach.
Schwartz became the fourth straight head coach to win in their Pirates head coaching debut with East Carolina’s 77-75 win over Mercer on Nov. 8, 2022 and he was the fifth coach in ECU’s Division I history to win at least 16 games in their first season as head coach of the Pirates. Schwartz was tabbed as the 24th head coach in East Carolina men’s basketball program history on Mar. 16, 2022 after spending the previous the six seasons on staff at the University of Tennessee, including three as the associate head coach. 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.