Off the court, Schintzius was known for his distinctive mullet-style haircut that he called "the lobster", his sometimes abrasive behavior, and his performance as a Russian basketball player in the 1996 comedy film Eddie.

[1][2] Together with teammate Toney Mack, Schintzius led the Eagles to a Class 4A state runner-up finish as a sophomore, and another Final Four berth as a junior.

[3] As a senior, he averaged 21.1 points and 17 rebounds per game,[3] was a finalist for Florida's Mr. Basketball award, and was recognized as a high school All-American by McDonald's and Parade magazine in 1986.

[5] He occasionally clashed with Coach Sloan, including one instance in which he refused to re-enter a game with a minute left during his sophomore season.

[5][6] During his junior season, Schintzius allegedly heard a rude remark from a sidewalk while riding in a car outside a Gainesville nightclub and stormed after the offender wielding a tennis racket.

[5] After returning from that suspension, fans in opposing arenas occasionally threw tennis balls onto the court, presumably taunting Schintzius for the incident.

[7][8][9] Sloan was forced to resign before Schintzius's senior season of 1989–90 and was replaced on an interim basis by former Tennessee coach Don DeVoe.

Schintzius was not happy with this turn of events and skipped DeVoe's first practice with the team along with fellow star Livingston Chatman.

[10] DeVoe told Schintzius that in order to rejoin the basketball team, he would have to improve his off-court behavior, maintain his playing weight (he weighed almost 300 pounds at one point), go to class consistently, and get rid of his distinct mullet-style haircut, known as the "lobster.".

[10] Without Schintzius, the Gators lost sixteen of the seventeen games to end the season and missed the NCAA tournament for the first time since the year before his arrival.

[12] He still holds Florida's career record for blocked shots (272), and is ranks sixth among the program's all-time scoring leaders with 1,624 points.

[15] Schintzius played Ivan Radovadovitch, a fictional Georgian player for the New York Knicks, in the 1996 comedy movie Eddie, which starred Whoopi Goldberg as the team's female coach.

[19] The procedure was considered a success,[20][21] but Schintzius struggled through several difficult rounds of chemotherapy until being declared cancer-free in July 2010.