Before the college basketball season began, there wasn’t much talk regarding Illinois and there certainly wasn’t a lot of talk about incoming freshman guard Keaton Wagler.
Fast forward five months and things have ended up being massively different.
Illinois was in the Final Four and Wagler, a former four-star prospect, was being regarded as not only one of the best players in the NCAA Tournament, but a solid lottery pick as well.
The Fighting Illini may have not won a national championship, but Wagler’s hype was solidified as he was taken by the Los Angeles Clippers with the fifth pick in this year’s NBA Draft.
Just who did the Clippers draft? Here’s a look back at the 6-foot-5 guard from Shawnee, Kansas, and his meteoric rise.
Staying loyal to Shawnee
Wagler comes from a basketball family that all either played or coached at some point during their careers in Kansas. For Wagler, he put Shawnee Mission Northwest High School on the map.
During his four years of high school, Wagler led the Cougars to an 80-16 record.
As a junior, Wagler and the Cougars were perfect, going 25-0 and winning the Class 6A state championship. They would go on to defend that title in his senior season, where they finished 22-3.
For his career, he finished with 1,105 points, 464 rebounds, 272 assists and 100 steals. As a senior, Wagler averaged 18.5 points and 6.7 rebounds while shooting 59% from the floor and over 45% from beyond the arc.
247Sports ranked Wagler as the No. 150 player in the 2027 class as well as the No. 26 shooting guard and No. 1 player out of Kansas.
Wagler held several offers heading into his senior year of high school, but only two from Power Four programs. Those two programs were Minnesota and Illinois.
He visited both schools in September of his senior season. Five days after his official visit to Illinois, he committed to the Fighting Illini.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Where No. 5 overall pick Keaton Wagler played high school basketball
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