Keaton Wagler has historic 46 point outing in Mackey Arena: 'Nothing fazes him'
When Illinois freshman guard Keaton Wagler finally made it to the postgame locker room, he didn’t have time to breathe.
His teammates swarmed him. Water bottles flew left and right. Cold water hit him in the face over and over again, and he could barely see. It was a chaotic celebration, but one that was well deserved.
For two hours prior, Wagler orchestrated one of the most impressive college basketball performances in recent history, not just by a freshman, but by any player, scoring 46 points on just 17 shots to lift No. 11 Illinois past No. 4 Purdue, 88-82 inside Mackey Arena.
It was the most points ever scored by an opposing player at Purdue, the most ever by a freshman on the road against an AP top-five team and an Illinois freshman scoring record.
Yet, when Wagler was asked about making history postgame and if he realized what he was doing in real time, the freshman shrugged it off.
“I did a little bit,” Wagler said. “But I was too focused and locked into the game. I wasn’t really worried about that.”
The response is fitting. Wagler’s demeanor on Saturday never changed. He was cool, calm and collected all game. No puffing out his chest after making a big play. No dramatics. Just basketball.
Illinois head coach Brad Underwood has come to expect that.
“If you guys didn’t get a good read on Keaton Wagler right there, than you missed it,” Underwood said. “Because he just plays. He just hoops. There’s nothing that fazes him. He just wants to make the right basketball play. And tonight it happened to be scoring it.
“It’s just his personality. He’s so stoic. He’s very non-emotional. He’s excited, yes, and his teammates were thrilled. But that’s the beauty of Keaton. The more impressive thing is he takes the emotion out of it in a venue of 15,000 people all against him. He just plays. He just took what the game gave him.”
All night long, Purdue switched five and allowed Wagler to go at their bigs one-on-one. Obviously, that wasn’t working, and Purdue made a late change to hard hedge screens involving Wagler to get the ball out of his hands.
The result? Four-straight triples for the Illini, igniting a 12-4 run to put the game away. Wagler made the assist or the pass to the assist on all four baskets.
“He had 46, and he could have been the selfish pig and said I want 50, but whatever, he doesn’t,” Underwood said. “The game floats to him and he’s going to make the right basketball play almost every time.”
“Hats off to him,” Purdue head coach Matt Painter said. “That’s probably the most impressive performance — Evan Turner came in here one time and played pretty well — but that’s one of the most impressive performances, if not THE most impressive performance we’ve had in Mackey Arena from an opponent.”
What’s even more impressive is Wagler’s never had a game like this before. He admitted postgame his highest point total in high school was 32 points during a tournament in Quincy, Illinois. To have his career-high against one of the best teams in the country on the road is truly remarkable.
“It’s a crazy thing that I really never thought that I would do, but I just let the game come to me and it was my night tonight,” Wagler said. “I think my teammates knew that too, so they were trying to give me the ball and let me just go to work and that’s what happened.”
“When he got to 24 in the first half I was like, ‘Shit, this mother f**** is shooting,” junior guard Jake Davis said. “He’s making everything so we need to keep giving him the ball. And we did.”
Purdue’s senior guard Braden Smith and big man Oscar Cluff also came away impressed.
“He’s probably a lottery pick,” Smith said.
“I mean, shooting step back threes from four or five feet from behind the line and making them, props to him,” Cluff added.
With the win, Illinois moves to 17-3 and 8-1 in Big Ten play. The Illini have risen to No. 6 on Kenpom with the No. 1 offense, and they won at Purdue without one of their best players and senior leader Kylan Boswell.
This team is for real.
“Tonight just shows our toughness and our grit as a team and it just shows how good of a team we are,” Wagler said. “It shows that we can contend with any team in the country.”
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