After a stellar freshman campaign at Illinois, Keaton Wagler now has his sights set on the pros.
Wagler, 19, declared for the NBA draft on Saturday, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported.
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.
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.
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.
“I felt like I was settled in, it was just my shot was off, which happens,” Wagler told reporters following the loss. “So I was just trying to stay confident throughout the game and keep shooting them. I felt like I’m a good shooter so I kept shooting them.”
Wagler added that, despite the disappointing ending, he and his Illinois teammates became a true family over the course of the season.
“Every day when you go through something like this with a group for this long, and you love them, it’s hard when it ends,” he added. “You know, when it ends, it’s just sad.”
Wagler, despite being widely considered a top-10 pick in this year’s draft, did not enter this season as one of college basketball’s top names.
Illinois head coach Brad Underwood, however, told ESPN in February that he’s tired of the underdog narrative surrounding Wagler.
“I’m tired of hearing about his high school [recruiting] ranking, I’m tired of hearing about he’s 170 pounds when he got here, and he’s physically skinny and weak,” Underwood said. “He’s none of those things anymore. If the story is that everybody missed on him, we didn’t.
“I’m tired of hearing that, too. We found him. He fit us. This is what college sports is all about, this type of situation.”
