Jamari Wheeler ready for March Madness debut

On Mar 16, 2022

The open gym sessions were only for adults or, at least, kids who could be playing for the high school.

It was about a decade ago that Jeremy Ulmer, then the coach at Live Oak (Florida) Suwannee, kept having to kick out a 10-year-old kid who wanted to run with the big guys. Until, eventually, he relented, and when he was about 12 years old Jamari Wheeler was finally allowed to participate. That’s how much it mattered to Wheeler to get a chance to compete at the highest level possible, even before he had reached his teenage years.

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Now, finally, it has led him to the biggest stage in college basketball: The NCAA Tournament. When No. 7 seed Ohio State tips off against No. 10 seed Loyola Chicago on Friday at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, it will mark Wheeler’s 157th career game spread across four seasons with Penn State and one with the Buckeyes.

It will be his first March Madness appearance.

“I’m excited for him,” Ulmer said. “I played for Florida back in the early 90s and we made it to the NIT and we were a bubble team. I remember watching the TV back then and we ended up being the second or third team out and I remember the disappointment I felt. I can imagine his emotions in that same situation going the other direction.”

Before signing with Penn State as an unranked recruit in the 247Sports.com composite database as a member of the 2017 class, Wheeler spent two seasons at Suwannee before transferring to nearby The Rock School. There, he continued his development under coach Justin Harden, who in his 17 seasons with the program also coached Joel Embiid among many other players.

Embiid was the No. 3 pick in the 2014 NBA draft, but Wheeler left behind a legacy of his own.

“Out of all the guys that I’ve coached, Joel Embiid to a number of other guys less-known than him, he’s 1, 1A in terms of competitiveness among anyone I’ve coached,” Harden said. “He’s got an insatiable desire to win. I think he hates losing more than he loves winning, but I think he loves winning a lot. His meter is just different in that regard.”

While at Penn State, Wheeler did actually win more than he lost. The Nittany Lions went 26-13 during his freshman season and won the NIT, slipped to 14-18 the following season but rebounded and were 21-10 and projected by KenPom.com as a No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament that was canceled due to the COVID-19 outbreak. When coach Pat Chambers was fired during Wheeler’s senior season and interim coach Jim Ferry was not retained after going 11-14, Wheeler opted to transfer for his final season of college basketball.

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He quickly picked the Buckeyes, who viewed his accolades as a two-time Big Ten all-defensive team member as a perfect backcourt complement to guard Duane Washington Jr. and wing Justice Sueing. Instead, Washington played his way into the NBA and Sueing missed all but two games with a groin/abdominal injury, shifting a bigger role to Wheeler than had been expected.

He’s averaging a career-high 7.4 points per game, has shot 39.8% on 93 3-point attempts, both career highs, while playing 29.4 minutes per game and starting all 29 games for which he’s been available. His defensive impact hasn’t been enough to help Ohio State, which enters the postseason ranked No. 130 nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency. Wheeler’s steal percentage of 2.7 is the lowest of his career.

Simply, the role Wheeler has played has not been the one he signed up for. That’s just not bothered him a whole lot because, until the final five games of the season, Ohio State was winning.

“Those guys would’ve loved playing with him, and he would’ve loved playing with them as well,” Harden said of Washington and Sueing. “It’s unfortunate they didn’t get that chance.

“He doesn’t really care about his stats. He just wants to win the game, whatever it takes. It’s manifested itself in every team he’s been on because they can trust in him knowing his ultimate desire is to see the team succeed and ultimately win.”

Ulmer said that was evident the moment he got to high school.

“He was still a young player, but he was one of those that he definitely held guys to the line,” he said. “Basketball for him was probably the most important thing in his life. He hated to lose and he made sure the other guys hated to lose with him. That’s part of being a good leader.”

Along the way, Wheeler has assumed a leadership role as a de facto captain on a team that has seen two of the four players elected to the title during the preseason (Kyle Young and Sueing) suffer injuries and miss significant time. The Buckeyes, likely projected as a No. 5 seed with eight days left in the regular season, instead lost three of their final four games and went one-and-done in the Big Ten tournament when Wheeler’s former team eliminated them last Thursday night.

None of that dimmed Wheeler’s joy three days later on Selection Sunday. With the entire Ohio State team assembled in coach Chris Holtmann’s basement watching the official selection show on three big-screen televisions, Wheeler’s yells were the loudest in the room when the Buckeyes were officially unveiled as a No. 7 seed.