A Basketball Season In Review - Forwards: Aaron Wheeler
After giving a brief overview of what happened with the 2019-20 Purdue Basketball Season, let’s take a bit of a deeper dive into the different position groups and the individual players’ performance for the year. This isn’t going to be a game by game breakdown but more of a holistic view of each player and if applicable, what they need to work on moving into next year.
Now that we have covered every guard on the roster and their respective seasons, we will move onto the next position group, the forwards! In this group, we will cover the Senior Evan Boudreaux, Sophomore Aaron Wheeler, and Freshman Walk-on Matt Frost. I will also address this now in case anyone becomes confused later. Trevion Williams is listed on Purdue’s roster as a forward but he will not be covered in the forward’s section. He will be covered as a center. That being said, the forward position had a very hot and cold season as a whole. There were games where the forward position was one of strength and others where it was more of a detriment. What happened and what does Purdue need from it’s returning players to avoid the same happening in 2020-21?
Aaron Wheeler
Aaron Wheeler is one of the most intriguing case studies in college basketball this year. He is a player who has so much dynamic upside, while also being fairly one dimensional. But all said and done, Aaron Wheeler brought a net positive to the team this year while being able to learn for the future.
Preseason
Of all the players on this roster, I think Aaron Wheeler had the highest expectations going into the 2019-20 season. After a great redshirt freshman year where he shot 44% from the field and 36.5% from three coming off the bench, it appeared that he was set to explode into a larger role. The combination of length, shooting, and jump out of the gym athleticism had fans watering at the mouth with his potential going forward.
In-Season Results
Unfortunately, we don’t always get what we want and our heart can always be bigger than our brain. From the outset of the season, it became apparent that Wheeler was not going to have the follow-up season many thought we would. I believe that we may not have placed enough credit to the amount of attention that Carsen Edwards, Ryan Cline, and Trevion Williams garnered on the floor in 2018-19. Wheeler found his opportunities during ball rotations and drive and kick shots from others that drew the defense to them.
This year it felt like Wheeler was missing the same shots he was making just the year before. Perhaps it was just a result of Purdue’s inconsistencies on offense that caused problems all around. He wasn’t the only one who took a step back this year, but he was one of the worst offenders. While during last year’s season he seemed to be either scoring at the rim or shooting a catch-and-shoot three. When those are working and he can score on those consistently, there isn’t an obvious gap in his game because what he is doing is working and all is well. This year, with his shooting issues, it became apparent that Aaron Wheeler, as athletic as he is, doesn’t have much of any form of a dribble-drive game. He rarely would drive to the basket or attempt to score in the paint like a bigger power forward. So when he isn’t able to shoot well, he seems to disappear on offense and his game becomes one dimensional.
He did show up in other areas and provided value elsewhere. He ended up fourth on the team in total rebounds on the season, tied for 5th in steals, and third in blocks. He is still an incredible athlete and took advantage of that as much as he could, but that can still only take you so far when playing at the level Purdue aspires. Going forward, Purdue will need him to become more dynamic as well as much more consistent on the offensive end.
AW: Shooting @Indiana
This was a game where we saw what Purdue fans thought Aaron Wheeler would be this year. He made plays on defense, he made shots on offense and generally played within himself.
AW: Hustle Plays @Indiana
vs Iowa
This is where I was happy to see Aaron have success this year. That being able to use his athleticism to his advantage and be in positions to make plays when they present themselves. He thrives when he doesn’t have to force the action.
The Iowa game in Mackey was a great example of what I want to see more of from Wheeler. He played very solid defense with quickly doubling in the post and returning to his man, he crashed the offensive glass getting putbacks at the rim, and using his athleticism to play above the rim.
This year was a regression to the mean for the program. It had been a few years in a row that Purdue was able to maintain success while also continuously losing major pieces to the program. This seemed to be the year when the personnel losses caught up to the team finally. The best way to sum up the season for Aaron Wheeler may just be a case of over-expectations. It could be that his ceiling isn’t as high as many thought it would be, or it could be that the offensive consistency issues with this team just permeated him the most.
We saw flashes of the best of Aaron Wheeler while also seeing the lowest points. He brings incredible athleticism to a program, that we as fans don’t see too often, and with that came extremely high expectations. He struggled all season long to replicate even his numbers from his freshman outing, but he didn’t hang his head and pout. He still put in the time and effort in other areas that provided major benefits to the team in the long run.
Season Stats/Averages: [PurdueSports.com]
GP/GS/Avg Mins/FGM/FGA/FG%/3PT/3PtA/3Pt%/FTM/FTA/FT%/PPG/AvgReb/TotalAST/TotalTO/TotalSTL
31/9/17.7 /37/144/25.7% /21/97/21.6% /17/20/85% /3.6 /4.2 /29 /30 /20
Takeaways
I don’t want to spend too much time here because the numbers aren’t great. Looking at his numbers on the season shows just how much Wheeler struggled this year from the floor. 21.6% from three can be explained by just a down year by someone who had issues shooting from beyond the arc. Unfortunately, couple that with the 25.7% total field goal percentage as well as only shooting 20 free-throws on the season, and that tells the tale of Aaron Wheeler and his offensive game in 2019-20. He had issues making baskets this year, and it was touched on earlier in this article, but when his shots aren’t falling he doesn’t have much else to fall back on. He never really drove the lane or put himself into a position to get to the free-throw line or try and get easy baskets at the rim. Having your uber-athletic power-forward only shoot 20 free throws the whole season isn’t amazing.
We saw better results on the defensive side of the ball from Wheeler. In 2019-20 Purdue deployed a more aggressive post double on defense, and this suited Aaron as the guy rotating to double because of his athleticism. He was quick enough to rotate and double fast, as well as rotate back to his man on the pass out. This was where he shined the most on defense being able to fly around and use his athleticism to his advantage. This also showed in his 20 season steals, as we saw him get into passing lanes and use his quickness well. His 11 blocks are right on the line where you would expect him to have more on the season with how explosive he is. Another area I would like to see addressed is his turnover numbers, he finished the season with 30 accredited turnovers to only 29 assists. I think everyone can always work on ball security and I would love to see that number drop or his assist numbers rise.
I look forward to seeing what he can do going forward into next year.
Best Game
I think this one is pretty obvious, it’s the game at Indiana. In this game, we saw Aaron make multiple plays on both offense and defense helping the Boilers best the Hoosiers in Bloomington. He finished the game with 11 points in 16 minutes, finished 4-4 from the field and 3-3 from beyond the arc. This is what fans wanted to see out of Aaron Wheeler. Along with his scoring, he was able to pull down 3 rebounds, dish out 2 assists, and 1 steal. It was one of the most complete games we saw out of the underclassmen (that wasn’t against Chicago State, because that game doesn’t qualify). Add in the fact that it happened on the night where Bobby Knight returned to Assembly Hall and ESPN couldn’t stop talking about it. Thank you for that Aaron!
Final Thoughts
I truly don’t believe that Aaron had the disaster season that many fans exclaim about on social media. Those people tend to get so focused on the shooting numbers that they fail to look at his play as a whole. Even in a year where he struggled, I saw a lot that I liked in his play and I am looking to seeing him come back in 2020-21. I think this will be a pivotal off-season for the soon to be Junior. I believe that he will come back and have the season we all hoped for next year. With the pieces that Purdue is both bringing back, bringing in from recruiting, and both freshman red shirts from 2019-20 and I think Purdue will be a force to be reckoned with!
What did you think about Aaron Wheeler’s play this year? And what are you hoping to see from the forward next year and going on in his career?
As always, Boiler up, Hammer Down, Hail Purdue!
