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PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Coquese Washington has announced an addition to the Rutgers women’s basketball coaching staff in Jeanine Wasielewski.

The women’s college basketball veteran joins the Scarlet Knights with over 14 years of experience, including six seasons in the Big Ten. Wasielewski will serve as an assistant coach and director of player enhancement at Rutgers.
“Jeanine truly has an incredible basketball mind,” Washington said. “Her background in analytics and statistical breakdown will be of tremendous benefit to our program. In addition, Jeanine is an experienced teacher of the game and has helped grow the basketball knowledge of players under her guidance at each of her coaching stops. There is no question, she will have a positive impact on Scarlet Knights women’s basketball.”

Prior to coming “On the Banks” Wasielewski was most recently the head coach at Southwestern Michigan College. She led the revival of the women’s basketball program after a 25-year hiatus. In the program’s first season back to competition in 2022-23, she recruited and coached a team of all freshmen to an 18-9 overall record, a 13-1 record on their home court and a third-place finish in conference that earned the squad a postseason tournament bid.

The team found success both on the court and in the classroom as four players earned All-Conference recognition and eight players were awarded conference academic honors.

Before her time at Southwestern Michigan, Wasielewski served as the lead assistant at Saint Francis University from 2019-21. She worked primarily with the guards while her off-court efforts included opponent scouting, recruiting and oversight of academics. She helped lead the Red Flash to a 21-13 conference record over two seasons which secured top seeds in the conference tournaments. Overall, she developed and mentored players that earned conference Scholar Athlete of the Year, All-Conference team honors, and Player/Rookie of the Week Honors.

From 2017-2019, Wasielewski was a member of Coquese Washington’s coaching staff at Penn State where she assisted with the team’s offense, practice planning and game planning. She also took lead roles in opponent scouting, coordination of on campus recruiting and implemented advanced analytics for the program. During her tenure with the Nittany Lions, she helped the program sign a Top-15 recruiting class.

Before her time in State College, Wasielewski was the lead assistant at Loyola University Chicago for the first three seasons the program competed in the Missouri Valley Conference. She coordinated the team’s offense, led the player development efforts for the guards and wings and served as the academic liaison. Wasielewski also played a key role in signing top recruiting classes in back-to-back years. She mentored and developed players that earned All-Conference honors including Newcomer of the Year. In her third year, the team posted a 10-8 conference record and made program history in defeating the No. 15-ranked team in the nation on the road.

Wasielewski formally began her college coaching career at MSU Denver where the team finished 21-10 and advanced to the second round of the NCAA DII Tournament in 2013. She assisted with all aspects of the program with focused contributions in developing the guards, opponent scouting, community service and management of team gear and equipment.

Before starting her collegiate coaching career on a full-time basis, Wasielewski had an impressive career in executive leadership roles for Molson Coors Brewing Company and PricewaterhouseCoopers. At Coors, she was the chief information officer for the U.S. business entity and for the MillerCoors joint venture.

During her own collegiate player career, Wasielewski was a four-year letter winner at Northwestern University. She was a key contributor on the 1990 Big Ten Championship team, participated and advanced in two NCAA Tournaments and posted back-to-back 20-win seasons. She earned Academic all-Big Ten honors three consecutive years, served as a team captain her senior year and was awarded the Roger L White endowment scholarship. Wasielewski graduated from Northwestern in 1991 with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and later earned her master’s degree in business administration from the University of Denver in 2004.
“It is an honor to join the Rutgers Family and a university that values high academics and the development of student-athletes,” Wasielewski said. “I am inspired by the vision Coquese has put into action and embrace the challenge of joining a highly experienced and exceptional coaching staff that is rapidly building Rutgers women’s basketball back to its championship tradition.”