Hawkeye Report Podcast 692

It's another special edition of the Hawkeye Report Podcast. We continue our series with the new Iowa men's basketball assistant coaches. This time we are joined by new assistant coach Connor Wheeler, who is in his second year with Ben McCollum after joining his staff at Drake.  We talk to Wheeler about growing up as the son of a coach in the Carbondale, Illinois area. The influence of his dad, who was a Hall of Fame coach and also his mom, who coaches softball at the high school level. We look back at his playing career, starting at John Logan on the junior college level and then at SIU-Edwardsville to wrap up his playing career.  After that, we talk to Wheeler about getting into coaching and grinding his way up from graduate assistant and video coordinator to player development and finally to a full time assistant coach at SEMO, where they made the NCAA Tournament.  Then we talk about how Wheeler ended up last August getting an opportunity to coach at Drake for Ben McCollum and how that team was so successful this past season. We also look at the players coming over from Drake and Wheeler breaks down what each player will being to the table. Also, we discuss the recruiting in the portal and what it is like to put together a roster these days for a coach and team, Finally, what he looks for from prospects when he is out evaluating at the high school and AAU level.