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PG Jamari Wheeler (Official Thread)

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Thump said:
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Height 6-0
Weight 150
High School Suwannee
Home Town Live Oak, FL
Exp 2017 - ...
 
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Holtmann was disappointed with his guards when he came to their defense last season and I guess that was one of the recent he went after Wheeler who is known for his defense.

Supposedly Holtmann is still looking for a post player. There are over 1000 players in the portal but most of them are wing players and we really do not need them. A Walker Kessler might be nice but he is probably headed for Gonzaga or some other big-time program.
 
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“I just felt like it was the best fit for me and the things that I was looking for at my next school," he said. "They had it all and I just wanted somewhere that plays my play style and gives me a chance to go to March Madness and compete for championships.

“Their message was with all the great pieces they have, the great guys and talent, and with a need for the point guard position that I was the piece that could help take them to the next level."

Assistant coach Jake Diebler was the lead man in Wheeler's recruitment and played a crucial role in landing the talented point guard.

“I built a really good relationship with coach Jake," he said. "When I was talking to my old coaches, they knew him and everything I heard from different coaches were all good about him and the whole coaching staff so it made the decision easier."
 
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Others took a quick glance at Wheeler’s stats from last season (6.8 PTS, 4.2 REB, 3.5 AST) and recruiting ranking from four years ago (a three-star recruit in 2017 who was not ranked in 247 Sports composite rankings) and decided that Ohio State was scraping the bottom of the barrel by adding Wheeler. You should completely disregard their opinion, because they don’t watch much basketball.

Wheeler is one of the nastiest perimeter/on ball defenders in the nation, which is going to tremendously help an Ohio State team that ranked 337th in the nation in forced turnovers last season. Wheeler’s 191 career steals ranks him sixth-all time in Penn State basketball history. He’ll immediately bring some juice to a Buckeye team that was pretty slow and lethargic on the defensive end all year.

And no, Wheeler isn’t a big-time scorer, but that isn’t what Ohio State needed. They’ve got two certified bucket-getters in Duane Washington Jr. and Liddell (assuming he comes back) already. They didn’t need to add a player who is going to take shots away from those two. They needed someone who can play nasty, active defense and move the ball around so that Liddell and Washington get more open looks. Holtmann found the perfect guy to do that in Wheeler, who in addition to those 191 career steals has also racked up 332 assists in four seasons. It was a match made in heaven the moment he entered the transfer portal.
 
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LitlBuck said:
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Wheeler, who averaged 6.8 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.5 assists in 31 minutes per game as a starter last season, liked the way Diebler talked about helping to take his offensive game to "another level." He intends to play professionally after next season, so he’s as focused on developing his entire game as ever before.

Still, he knows the reason the Buckeyes and all the other high-major teams really wanted him: His defense.

Wheeler described himself as a gnat on defense. Somebody who won’t leave ball-handlers alone, bothering them as they try and fail to rid themselves of him. He has no problem defending all 94 feet. After all, his mindset when he takes the court is to out-work everybody else: “Go kill the opposite team. That's my No. 1 thing. Just go out there and compete and win.”

That has helped him to earn back-to-back all-conference defensive team selections, though the honors don’t satisfy him.

“I feel like I had got robbed back to back of Defensive Player of the Year in the Big Ten,” Wheeler said. “So I feel like going into this year, that's my No. 1 goal: Be that Defensive Player of the Year.”

Just sayin':

1. Musa Jallow averaged 2.8 points, 2.2 rebounds and 0.7 assists in 14.8 minutes per game across 94 games – including 28 starts – in his four years with the Buckeyes. Definitely an upgrade both offensively and defensively over Jallow.

2. Also being a "gnat on defense" is good too....8D
 
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