The 2000 Wisconsin Badgers are a team of legends, and one that many Badger fans remember vividly. Most of those players have stayed in basketball in one way or another, and now Julian Swartz has been announced as an assistant coach for the Milwaukee Panthers. For Swartz, this is a promotion from "special assistant to the head coach" to a coach who's on the bench and one of Bart Lundy's main go-to coaches.
Swartz's career took a few big turns, and even his time with the Badgers was marked with a little bit of ups and downs. It's good to see a player who had to leave abruptly from Wisconsin and a Final Four team find basketball success in the coaching world. He went on to become a Hall of Famer in the state of Wisconsin from his playing days (high school).
Julian Swartz, a former Waukesha South (WI) basketball standout and member of the 2000 Wisconsin Badgers Final Four team, is now an assistant coach for the Milwaukee Panthers. https://t.co/hDeD585ZUs
— Jordan Loppnow (@JordanLoppnow) June 22, 2026
Former Badger Julian Swartz has been promoted to assistant coach for the Milwaukee Panthers
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Swartz was part of one of the most iconic Wisconsin Badgers basketball teams of all time. He played in 17 games during his two years at Wisconsin, finishing the Final Four season with 1.5 points per game. While he wasn't a huge part of the success in terms of production, he was a key member of the team. However, his time with the Badgers ended quickly as his family announced that Swartz was leaving the team due to his mental health.
According to the Wisconsin press release at the time, "Julian Swartz in agreement with his mental health providers, the UW Sports Medicine staff and his family ' has decided to permanently leave the Wisconsin basketball program for mental health issues."
It was not known what Swartz's future would hold at the time, but to see him not only find his way back to basketball and his love for it grow so much that he's now a coach is great to see. Playing basketball at the highest collegiate level isn't easy, and Swartz knows that intimately. Now, he's guiding other young men in and through that pressure.
This isn't his first stop in the collegiate coaching world for Swartz. After his break from playing, he went on to help at Marquette as a graduate assistant. He followed Tom Crean to Indiana as an intern for one season. These opportunities eventually led him to the University of Memphis on the operational side of basketball. Following head coach Josh Pastner to Georgia Tech with one year as the director of basketball operations and another as an assistant coach.
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Finally, he came back to his home state to work for Bart Lundy and helped as a special assistant to him in a variety of ways. That led to his now promotion to a coach on the bench. It's very cool to see, and congratulations to a former Wisconsin Badger and a player that many remember from the Final Four run.
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