Big 10 Dreams: The Jonas Wieczjak Story

[jksander]

My name is Jonas Wieczjak, and I've spent the last two seasons earning my stripes as a collegiate head coach in the world of basketball. I was hired in the summer of 2016 to coach the USC Trojans, a basketball program hidden away at a football school, and we had the budget you'd expect for that situation. But I worked within the system, brought in quality coaches I could work with, and together we brought in two solid recruiting classes, while managing the roster of players I'd inherited, within my system, to become the premier team in the PAC-12.

This all happened quickly – my first season, despite a 10-8 5th place finish in the PAC-12, we went 22-13 overall and made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament. And with most of our players back in the roster for my second season, we were on fire all year long. That meant a peak of #9 nationally late in the season, the top RPI in the nation due to a brutal non-conference schedule and the fact that our conference had five ranked teams most of the year (more than any other conference). So by the time we'd seen all we were gonna see, we'd put together a stunningly strong 29-6 campaign, culminating in a top seed in the NCAA tournament and a trip to the Final Four.

After all that I was given a contract offer with USC that would have added five years to my tenure and given me a mild raise, but there was no sense that the administration cared as much about our Final Four and the work we'd done in such short order like it would have for the football team making it into the national championship conversation.

So when I got a five year $699,000 offer to go to West Lafayette, Indiana, to coach the Purdue Boilermakers just a month following their dismal 5-23 campaign and the firing of their interim head coach Tim Romar, I decided the lure of the Big 10, Indiana basketball, was too much to pass up.

We'll have a budget nearly $40,000 higher overall than I had at USC, so I can continue to attract strong coaching talent while using my skills as a recruiter to turn this program around.

Quickly, if my plans go to order.

So welcome along for the ride – it'll take work, but I am confident I can do for West Lafayette what I did in Los Angeles over the last two seasons. And while right now they'll be happy getting back into the postseason at all, within a few years I'm hoping I'll have Purdue in that national championship conversation along with the likes of IU, winner of the 2016-17 tournament.

That's what it takes in the Big 10, big moves to make big progress. And if you're not willing to dream that dream, you're not ready to coach here.

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Season 3
2018-19

Coach Information
Name: Jonas Wieczjak (44)
Contract: $699,000 / year (5 years)
Experience: 51-19 (.729)
Offense: 64/100 (+6)
Defense: 73/100 (+8)
Recruiting: 85/100 (+6)
Scouting: 76/100
Development: 70/100 (+6)
Reputation: 62/100 (+9)
Job Security: Secure

School Information
School: Purdue Boilermakers
Location: West Lafayette IN
Arena: Mackey Arena (14,123)
Facilities: B
Academics: B- (920 SAT Minimum)
Conference: Big 10
Conf. Prestige: 81/100
Team Prestige: 64/100
All-Time Team Record: 1,763-1,031 (0.631)
Big 10 Championships: 1
NCAA Appearances: 29
- Sweet 16 Appearances: 9
- Final Four Appearances: 2
NIT Appearances: 8 (1 Championship)
CBI Appearances: 1
CIT Appearances: 0

Season Goals
Qualify for NCAA Tournament
Finish in top half of conference
Finish above .500
Improve school prestige