Southeast Missouri State University Athletics

Connor Wheeler is in his second year as an assistant coach at Southeast Missouri. 

In his first season on the Redhawks staff, Wheeler helped lead SEMO to its first Ohio Valley Conference Tournament title and NCAA Tournament appearance in 23 years. The Redhawks won four games in four days becoming the first #5 seed in OVC Tournament history to win the crown.

Wheeler coached two All-OVC performers in guards Chris Harris and Phillip Russell. Both Harris and Russell were 1,000-point scorers in their careers and made the OVC All-Tournament Team, as well.

A Carbondale, Illinois native, Wheeler joined the Redhawks after spending three years at Southern Illinois. He initially joined the SIU staff as the program’s director of player development and was promoted to director of operations.

Prior to SIU, Wheeler worked as the video coordinator at Southern Miss in 2018-19 and video coordinator and graduate assistant at Missouri from 2016-18.

As SIU’s director of player development, Wheeler made an instant impact on the Saluki program. SIU led the Missouri Valley Conference and ranked in the top-15 nationally in scoring defense (62.2 ppg allowed) during his first season in 2019-20.

In his second year, Wheeler helped lead SIU to a 7-0 start to the season, the best for the program since 1948. That start included a win over Butler at Hinkle Fieldhouse which snapped the Bulldogs’ nation-leading 59-game non- conference home court winning streak. Butler had not lost a home non-conference game since 2012 prior to SIU’s win in December 2020.

Wheeler again helped guide the Salukis to the top of the MVC in scoring defense. SIU surrendered just 61.4 points per game during the 2021-22 campaign.

Wheeler was a standout at Carbondale and Du Quoin High Schools and played his final two years in college at SIU Edwardsville. He also played one season for Saluki alum Kyle Smithpeters at John A. Logan College and returned to JALC as a volunteer assistant after graduating.