{"id":708586,"date":"2026-04-12T01:33:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T01:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/708586\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T01:33:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T01:33:24","slug":"illinois-star-keaton-wagler-declares-for-nba-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/708586\/","title":{"rendered":"Illinois star Keaton Wagler declares for NBA draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a stellar freshman campaign at Illinois, Keaton Wagler now has his sights set on the pros.<\/p>\n

Wagler, 19, declared for the NBA draft on Saturday, ESPN\u2019s Shams Charania reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Through 37 games played this season, Wagler averaged 19.7 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 4.2 assists while shooting 44.5 percent from the field and just under 40 percent from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n

\"KeatonKeaton Wagler shoots the ball during the second half of Illinois\u2019 loss to UConn in the Final Four on April 4, 2026 in Indianapolis. Getty Images<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-6 guard finished with the third-most points in a single season in program history (663), earning himself Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors, along with being a consensus Second-Team All-American.<\/p>\n

Wagler helped the Fighting Illini make their first Final Four appearance since 2005, and put up a 20-point performance on a shaky 7-of-16 shooting from the field in their 71-62 loss to UConn.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like I was settled in, it was just my shot was off, which happens,\u201d Wagler told reporters following the loss<\/a>. \u201cSo I was just trying to stay confident throughout the game and keep shooting them. I felt like I\u2019m a good shooter so I kept shooting them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wagler added that, despite the disappointing ending, he and his Illinois teammates became a true family over the course of the season.<\/p>\n

\"KeatonKeaton Wagler dribbles up court during Illinois\u2019 loss to UConn in the Final Four. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day when you go through something like this with a group for this long, and you love them, it\u2019s hard when it ends,\u201d he added. \u201cYou know, when it ends, it\u2019s just sad.\u201d <\/p>\n

Wagler, despite being widely considered a top-10 pick in this year\u2019s draft, did not enter this season as one of college basketball\u2019s top names.<\/p>\n

Illinois head coach Brad Underwood, however, told ESPN in February<\/a> that he\u2019s tired of the underdog narrative surrounding Wagler.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m tired of hearing about his high school [recruiting] ranking, I\u2019m tired of hearing about he\u2019s 170 pounds when he got here, and he\u2019s physically skinny and weak,\u201d Underwood said<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s none of those things anymore. If the story is that everybody missed on him, we didn\u2019t. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m tired of hearing that, too. We found him. He fit us. This is what college sports is all about, this type of situation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a stellar freshman campaign at Illinois, Keaton Wagler now has his sights set on the pros. Wagler,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":708587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,217,7367,6,12,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-708586","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-draft","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college-basketball","10":"tag-illinois-fighting-illini","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-nba-draft","13":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116389165125531295","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=708586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/708587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}