5 things to know about Florida State’s newest frontcourt addition

3. His ACC Season Was Humbling — But Still Showed Flashes

The honest accounting of Schwieger's one season in Winston-Salem is that the ACC transition was difficult. His Player Efficiency Rating dropped from 17.7 over his two Valparaiso seasons to 11.1 at Wake Forest, and his scoring average fell from 15.8 points per game to 5.1. He appeared in 34 games with 11 starts, totaling 172 points and 84 rebounds while ranking second on the team in blocked shots with 20. The bright spots were real, however.

Schwieger scored a season-high 13 points at Georgia Tech and posted a season-high 11 rebounds at Pitt, starting 11 of Wake Forest's 12 games between Jan. 7 and Feb 21. — a stretch that suggests the coaching staff trusted him when the roster was healthiest. At Valparaiso, Schwieger showed he could shoot, making 36.3% of his 3-pointers on 91 attempts as a freshman, and the belief at FSU is that a full offseason in a system built around his strengths will unlock the player who dominated the MVC for two years.

2. He Joins Larry Bird and Oscar Robertson in the MVC Record Books

The single most jaw-dropping entry on Schwieger's resume has nothing to do with conference awards or draft projections, it has to do with the names he stands beside in the Missouri Valley Conference history books.

In the final week of his sophomore regular season, Schwieger put up 33 points, 18 rebounds, and 5 assists against UIC — becoming just the third player in Missouri Valley Conference history to record a 30-15-5 line in a single game, joining Larry Bird on March 24, 1979, and Oscar Robertson on March 31, 1959. That performance earned him both the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week and the Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week award.

1. Nobody Recruited Him Out of High School

Schwieger's journey to Tallahassee is a remarkable story about a late-blooming prospect. He was unranked as a high school recruit coming out of Blue Valley Southwest High School in Overland Park, Kansas, drawing almost no high-major attention despite his physical profile. Rather than sign directly with a Division I program, Schwieger attended Link Year Academy in Branson, Missouri, on the advice of his AAU coach Pip Dukes, using the year to develop his ball-handling and shooting ability before signing with Valparaiso.

From unrecruited to one of the portal's most coveted front-court pieces in three years, Schwieger's trajectory is unlike almost anyone on FSU's roster.

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This article originally appeared on FSU Wire: Cooper Schwieger: What to know about FSU's new transfer