Illinois guard Keaton Wagler breaks six-year drought with honors before NCAA Tournament originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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With the Big Ten Tournament officially getting underway Tuesday, the conference released all of its awards as voted on by the media and coaches.
Illinois Fighting Illini freshman guard Keaton Wagler, to no one's surprise, took home a significant chunk of accolades as his team earned a triple bye and will play Friday (2:30 p.m. ET, Big Ten Network).
Per a press release from Illinois Athletics, Wagler was named a finalist for the Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year Award and was also named the Big Ten Freshman of the Year.
"Wagler is having a historic freshman season with the Illini," a portion of the release stated. "He shattered the school's freshman scoring record – currently with 554 points – and at 17.9 PPG, he is on pace to set the program's rookie scoring average record as well. He has scored in double figures in each of the last 23 games, and 28 times on the season, with a total of nine 20-point games. Wagler was a six-time Big Ten Freshman of the Week and earned National Player of the Week accolades after his 46-point performance in the win at No. 4 Purdue on Jan. 24 that marked the most points by any player in a top-10 road win and the most ever by a Big Ten freshman."
Coach Brad Underwood has been adamant about Wagler's game all season.
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"I’m tired of hearing about his high school [recruiting] ranking," Underwood told ESPN. "I’m tired of hearing about [how] he’s 170 pounds when he got here, and he’s physically skinny and weak. 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."
Wagler, who is projected to go within the top 20 of the NBA Draft according to ESPN, should he decide to declare after the season, could follow in the footsteps of Kasparas Jakučionis and Will Riley, who both went one-and-done this past year.
But Wagler has the Big Ten Tournament and NCAA Tournament ahead of him, giving him multiple opportunities to improve his draft stock or prep for a potentially massive sophomore season.
For now, though, it's one game at a time for Wagler's Illini as he became the first Illinois player since Kofi Cockburn to earn Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors.
MORE: Brad Underwood angry at 'bunch of crap' question following Illinois' regular season finale
Illinois will await its first opponent Friday afternoon as it tries to regain the conference tournament title for the first time since 2024.
We'll see if it can.
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