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East Carolina hired Tennessee assistant Michael Schwartz as head basketball coach Wednesday.

Athletic director Jon Gilbert announced the hiring.

Schwartz spent seven seasons at Tennessee, four as associate head coach. Schwartz has been Tennessee’s defensive coordinator the past five seasons, and the Volunteeers are 118-45 in that span. Tennessee had the nation’s fourth-best defensive efficiency rating, according to KenPom.com.

Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said Schwartz has been prepared to lead his own program for a few years and had many opportunities before agreeing to go to East Carolina.

Schwartz will be staying with Tennessee through the NCAA Tournament. The Volunteers just won the Southeastern Conference Tournament for the first time in 43 years, and they are a No. 3 seed in the South Region.

He started coaching as a graduate assistant at Texas under Barnes in 1999. He went to Long Beach State as a video assistant in 2001 before returning to Texas in 2002 as video coordinator. Schwartz was an assistant coach at Texas-San Antonio in 2004 before moving to Miami as coordinator of basketball operations in 2005.

Schwartz became an assistant coach at Miami in 2007. He moved to Fresno State in 2011 and was associate head coach in 2014-15. He was an assistant at Tulsa in 2015-16 before rejoining Barnes at Tennessee.

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