How Illinois’ Keaton Wagler went from recruiting afterthought to Final Four lynchpin in just one year

How Illinois’ Keaton Wagler went from recruiting afterthought to Final Four lynchpin in just one year originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The kids at the top of the list – it’s OK to call them kids, right? – earned every bit of the attention accorded them. Three of them received first-team All-America honors from the Sporting News. Four averaged more than 22 points a game. More than a dozen populated the most prominent positions in mock NBA Drafts throughout the winter. The first in the entire class to achieve the Final Four dream, though, is the one almost no one wanted.

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Keaton Wagler was unknown enough that even by the time Illinois got to the NCAA Sweet 16, there remained some confusion about how to pronounce his name. (It’s WOG-ler, which you’ll need to know because you’ll be talking about him a while.)

Everyone has known about Cameron Boozer and AJ Dybantsa for years. Darryn Peterson was one of this season’s biggest college basketball stories, because of his remarkable talent but also his periodic absences from the Kansas lineup. Darius Acuff electrified the SEC with his scoring and playmaking ability. In a recruiting class that placed those young men at the very top of the charts, Wagler was ranked 261st.

MORE: Exploring Keaton Wagler’s NCAA tournament stats

And he was listed as a shooting guard.

Now, he’s a point guard – a Final Four point guard – and the Most Outstanding Player in the NCAA South Region.

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Yeah, Murray State offered, and Southern Illinois and Colorado State. Wagler was the Kansas state Player of the Year in his junior year, a state champion at Shawnee Mission Northwest High, but not until someone who knew Brad Underwood from his days as a Kansas State assistant tipped off the Illini did a power program take a serious look.

We can say they were lucky, that the resulting success in the 2026 NCAA Tournament is mere good fortune, but Illinois could…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/illinois-keaton-wagler-went-recruiting-020750324.html

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Publish date : 2026-03-29 02:07:00

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