New Purdue baseball coach has impressive recruiting résumé

Purdue made its hire of Mark Wasikowski official Friday morning, bringing in the Oregon assistant to head its baseball program.

In 20 years as an assistant, at the likes of Oregon, Arizona, Florida and SEMO, the Seal Beach, Calif., native has helped teams to 14 NCAA appearances, including six straight from 2010-15, with four in his first four seasons at Oregon, including a 2012 Super Regional. This season, the Ducks finished 29-26, missing the tournament.

“During the hiring process, Mark’s name immediately rose to the top of our candidate list,” Purdue senior associate athletics director Ed Howat, the sport supervisor for baseball, said in a release. “He is exactly the type of person and coach we were looking for from the onset. He is a proven winner, who knows what it takes to build a championship program. He has worked for two renowned coaches, so he is well prepared. Additionally, he is a man of great character, who is committed not only to developing our young men as students and athletes, but also as quality people. We are excited to welcome Mark, his wife Lori Jo, and daughters, Joelle and Kelsey, to our Boilermaker family.”

Wasikowski has an impressive coaching résumé, working with three-time national coach-of-the-year Andy Lopez at Arizona (1998-2001) and Florida (2001-11). After, he joined George Horton's staff at Oregon, where he helped the Ducks win 205 games in five seasons. (More here from our Wednesday report).

Wasikowski's recruiting efforts might be his greatest strength, bringing in consecutive top-25 classes while at Oregon, with the '13 class being as high as sixth by Perfect Game and the '15 class at eighth in Collegiate Baseball Rankings. As a Wildcat assistant, he also helped assemble the '12 Arizona team, which won the national championship a year after he had moved on to Oregon.

Nick Hundley, a Colorado Rockies catcher and an '05 All-American at Arizona, said he had never considered becoming a Wildcat until Wasikowski swayed him.

"I felt like he cared more about me than anyone I talked to in the recruiting process," Hundley said in Purdue's release. "He out-recruited every other school. My dad was a college football coach for 41 years, and he told me during the process that Arizona will get good players if I went there because (Mark) could recruit and get players in there. Then when I got to school, he was more concerned with me as a person than he was with my performance. He stayed on me about school and put together a three-year graduation plan so I could be done with school if I signed after my junior year.

"As a player, I left Arizona much better than when I arrived. He was very good at the mental part of the game and pushing us to get to places we didn't know we could go. I still talk to (Mark) about once every three months. He is very loyal, and I would trust his character to run my program.”

Following back-to-back seasons in 2013 and '14, Perfect Game said Wasikowski was one of 10 assistant coaches who are “ready to lead.” He will now at Purdue, where he replaces longtime coach Doug Schreiber, who resigned after the 2015 season. Wasikowski is the 20th head coach in Purdue history.

“I would like to thank Morgan Burke and Ed Howat for the opportunity to become the head baseball coach at Purdue University,” Wasikowski said in a release. “I have been humbled to serve under great mentors in Mark Hogan, Andy Lopez and George Horton, and am now humbled again to serve such an elite university. There is much work to do but with the great Purdue leadership and resources, I am excited to lead Boilermaker baseball into a new era of success both on and off the field. Boiler up!”

Wasikowski played at Hawai'i and Rancho Santiago Junior College, before Pepperdine for two seasons, helping the Wave to the '92 national championship.

One of three finalists for the job, Wasikowski quickly separated himself, becoming the frontrunner following weekend interviews on Purdue's campus. He's expected to get a multi-year contract, a rarity for an Olympic sport coach at Purdue, although contract terms were not released.

Wasikowski takes over a Purdue program in need of a boost. Since winning the Big Ten title in 2012, the Boilermakers have been sub-.500, finishing in last place in the conference in back-to-back seasons in 2014 and '15. This year, they won only 10 games, just two in the Big Ten, leading to Schreiber's resignation.

But Wasikowski inherits a '16 recruiting class that ranks fourth in the Big Ten (by Perfect Game), although one of its top prospects — pitcher Steve McAvene (Roncalli) — was granted his release and later signed with Louisville.

Wasikowski is expected to be available later Friday for further comment.

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