Former Marquette basketball head coach lands a new job

A former Marquette Basketball head men’s basketball coach has found a new job.

Steve Wojciechowski will take over as head coach of the Salt Lake City Stars. They are the G League affiliate of the Utah Jazz.

Wojciechowski has been officially out of coaching since he was fired by Marquette two seasons ago.

He moved to Park City, Utah, and spent time around the Jazz because of his Duke ties with their former head coach Quinn Snyder. He maintained a working relationship with current head coach Will Hardy.

The job opened when the Stars’ previous head coach was set to join the Jazz’ coaching staff.

Maybe Wojciechowski will get a chance to be an NBA assistant with this move or get another college head coaching job someday.

Wojciechowski had a disappointing tenure when he coached the Marquette Golden Eagles.

Wojciechowski, better known as Wojo, had some success when he was on the sidelines for Marquette, but he never lived up to the hype when he came to Milwaukee.

He was hired in 2014 after Buzz Williams surprisingly left to take the Virginia Tech job. At the time, Wojo was an up-and-coming hotshot assistant coach who was expected to one day take over for Mike Krzyzewski at Duke.

He went 128-95 with two NCAA Tournament appearances and one NIT invite in his seven seasons. He might have had a third March Madness selection had the 2020 NCAA Tournament not been canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He never won in the Big Dance, and Marquette lost in embarrassing fashion both times.

They were blown out by 20 against South Carolina in the first round in 2017 as the Gamecocks went onto the Final Four.

Ja Morant introduced himself to the mainstream when he recorded a triple-double as Murray State won by 19 in the 2019 first round.

Wojo’s Big East record was not great, either. He went 59-68 in conference play.

Wojciechowski also had two losing seasons. He was fired after the 2020-2021 season concluded with a 13-14 record.

Marquette paid him a massive buyout, and it allowed Wojo to take some time off. He also did some in-studio analyst work for ESPN.

Wojo struggled with in-game coaching and retaining talent. His program was never really any good defensively, and this was a guy who won National Defensive Player of the Year when he played at Duke.

He could recruit as he brought in McDonald’s All-Americans, Henry Ellenson, and Dawson Garcia. He also brought in Marquette’s all-time leading scorer, Markus Howard, to Milwaukee.

Wojo had problems keeping players at Marquette, however. Sam and Joey Hauser infamously transferred after the 2018-2019 season. Rumors swirled that they did not like how Wojciechowski wanted the offense to run so much through Howard.

It was a gut-punch because if the Hauser brothers returned, the Marquette Golden Eagles were looking like a top-five team.

Also, that season was the high point of his coaching tenure when the team started 23-4. They slumped down the stretch with a 1-6 record, and it started the fan base yearning for Wojo to be fired. They got their wish two years later.