Wheelin’ and dealin’
Stamford’s Wheeler a key player in nation’s best conference
A quick scan of this week’s AP Top 25 poll reveals what college basketball pundits have been saying all season: the Big 10 is the best conference in the land.
The league has six teams in the Top 25. No less than 10 of its 14 teams rank among the top 45 in the nation in the NET rankings, the prime metric used by the NCAA tournament’s selection committee. Not surprisingly, the Big 10 ranks No. 1 in the conference RPI rankings.
But don’t take the voters’ or the analytic geeks’ word for it. Just ask Purdue’s Aaron Wheeler, our local liaison to the Big Ten.
“Everyone sees we have a lot of ranked teams, but even the unranked teams … every night is gonna be a battle,” said Wheeler, a Stamford native. “You’ve got teams like us that are unranked that give people good games. The whole league is competitive from top to bottom. There’s no giveaway games, you’ve always got to come prepared and bring it.
“I think it’s the best league in the country, for sure.”
Wheeler should know. The 6-foot-9 junior forward has had to box out and muscle up against some of the very best players in the nation this season: Luka Garza, Iowa’s 7-foot center and runaway frontrunner for National Player of the Year; Illinois’ Kofi Cockburn, a 7-foot, 285-pound sophomore; Indiana’s Trayce Jackson-Davis, Rutgers’ Ron Harper Jr. … the list goes on and on.
Who’s the toughest opponent been so far?
“I’d have to say either Iowa or Illinois, Wheeler said. “Obviously, Iowa has Luke Garza, he’s a handful. But I think Illinois’s dynamic duo of Ayo Dosunmu and Kofi Cockburn, they’re a lot to handle, as well. So, it would have to be one of those two teams.”
Purdue lost to Iowa by 15 points and fell to Illinois by eight, but the Boilermakers have more than held their own in the nation’s toughest league. Purdue has won two straight tough road games (at Michigan State on Jan. 8 and at Indiana on Thursday) and sits near the top of the league standings at 4-3, tied with No. 21 Ohio State and just a game behind Illinois. The Boilermakers are 9-5 overall but rank a healthy No. 37 in the NET rankings.
Wheeler has played no small part in Purdue’s success. After starting the first five games of the season, he’s been popping off the bench as a key reserve, averaging 4.2 points and 5.0 rebounds per game. His role extends far beyond the numbers.
“Just being more of an energy guy, trying to be that spark, lift some other guys up, knock down open shots, things like that,” Wheeler said. “Get on the glass and
contribute on defense. That’s kind of my role now.”
He certainly comes from good athletic stock. His dad, William Jr., played at both UNC-Charlotte and Manhattan, scoring 1,000 points in just two seasons at the latter. His uncle, Kenneth, was a co-captain at Yale, and his older brother, Brandon, played four years at Division 2 Bentley.
Now, Aaron Wheeler is making his own mark out at Purdue.
“As a whole, it’s a little different than Connecticut,” he noted. “But I’ve come to like it. It’s a little different, but I’m definitely adjusted at this point. It’s just more rural, a lot more cornfields and stuff. But, it’s cool. There’s not much out here, so you can focus on basketball, which is good.”
‘KEEP STRIVING FORWARD’
Indeed, it’s a long way from Stamford to West Lafayette, Ind., and Wheeler’s journey has been aptly lengthy. Born and raised in Stamford (his mom, Michelle, is from Danbury; dad hails from Queens), Wheeler played for Mike Walsh at Trinity Catholic for two years before heading to St. Andrew’s in Barrington, R.I. for two seasons.
Numerous East Coast schools recruited Wheeler hard while at St. Andrew’s, including Pittsburgh, Temple, Seton Hall, Providence … and a Rhode Island team coached by a certain Dan Hurley. Due to St. Andrew’s proximity to PC and URI, Wheeler made frequent visits to both schools.
“Coach (Ed) Cooley is real down to earth, Coach Hurley used to call me on the regular,” Wheeler recalled. “We got a pretty good relationship. They’re both great guys. It was cool to see Coach Hurley go to UConn, they’re rebuilding over there.”
Instead of committing, however, Wheeler opted for one more year of prep school at Brewster Academy up in New Hampshire to increase his exposure a bit.
“I feel like it worked out in my favor,” he noted.
Indeed, that fall, schools like Michigan, Arkansas, Creighton and Northwestern were trying to get Wheeler in for official visits, but he made just one — to Purdue.
Wheeler red-shirted as a freshman in 2017-18 and has been a key part of the Boilermakers’ rotation ever since.
Now, he’s going up against the best players and best teams in the best league in the country, every single night.
“(We’ve got to) just keep building off of what we’re doing,” Aaron Wheeler said. “We’ve got a couple of good wins, but at the end of the day, we’re trying to win the league. So, keep taking steps, building off wins like that and keep striving forward.”