Keaton Wagler propels Illinois to the Final Four
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José de Jesus Ortiz, Founder & Editor in Chief
- March 28, 2026
Illinois reaches Final Four for first time since 2005
HOUSTON – In a family with deep basketball roots in Kansas, Keaton Wagler often envisioned himself making a run at the Final Four. Few, however, would have dared to dream of the storybook freshman season the former four-star recruit is having.
On a night when the Illinois’ big men dominated the boards, Wagler did almost everything else to beat Iowa in the NCAA Tournament’s South Regional Final on Saturday at Toyota Center.
The 6-foot-7 freshman guard from Shawnee, Kan., scored a game-high 25 points to help Illinois reach the Final Four for the first time since 2005.
Illinois 71, Iowa 59.
‘Not done yet’
“This is what kids dream of,” Wagler said after he was named the South Regional’s Most Outstanding Player. “I know I dreamed of this when I was growing up, playing in the Final Four, competing for a National Championship.
“To be able to do it with the people around me, you know, teammates, coaches, fans, managers, everyone, it means a lot. Like he said, like, we got here, but we’re not done yet.”
No. 9 seed Iowa jumped to a 9-0 lead before Wagler scored Illinois’ first basket almost four minutes into the game. The Hawkeyes carried a 32-28 lead into halftime.
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Illinois wiped the lead away quickly with baskets by Tomislav Ivisic and David Mirkovic, who tied it at 32-32 on a layup while being fouled with 18:36 to play. Mirkovic gave Illinois its first lead, 33-32, on the subsequent free throw.
“Yeah, I didn’t have to talk much at halftime about Xs and Os,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood said. “We got good shots. I just wanted to see if we would counter-punch. I thought we leveled off the first half. But I didn’t think we ever really crawled in. We had three fouls in the first half.
“And again, we’re not out there trying to maul ’em and foul, but we had to have some tenacity and some aggressiveness. And started countering with Bam on that play, and just kind of grew from there. Obviously, it worked. Six field goals and only one of ’em was a two.”
Tale of two halves
Tavion Banks countered with a 3-pointer to put the Hawkeyes back on top 35-33. The score remained close until Illinois took a 54-51 lead on Ivisic’s hook shot with 6:27 to play. Ivisic added another basket to make it 56-51 lead with 5:41 to play, prompting the Hawkeyes to call a timeout.
Iowa star Bennett Stirtz turned it over on the possession after the timeout, and Illinois began pulling away after Wagler’s jumper made it 58-51. Illinois pushed the lead to 60-52 on Zvonimir Ivisic’s dunk.
Illinois outrebounded Iowa 38-21, securing 16 of those rebounds on the offensive side. Moreover, the Fighting Illini outscored the Hawkeyes 40-12 in the paint.
Making matters worse for the Hawkeyes, they shot only 23 percent in the second half after shooting 57 percent in the first.
“Probably our lack of shooting caught up with us,” Iowa coach Ben McCollum said. “I think that we couldn’t space it, and so when you can’t space it, you can’t get to the rim. So it just became a problem where we were having to take tough threes.
“I think then you compound that with giving up offensive rebounds, because we’re still right there, regardless. But that was probably the biggest factor was we just didn’t have enough shooting out there. So when you don’t have shooting, you can’t get to the rim, and it doesn’t space the floor.”
Keaton Wagler shows poise
After Ivisic fouled out with two minutes to play, Iowa’s Tate Sage hit two free throws to cut the deficit to 63-59. Unfortunately for the Hawkeyes, they never scored again. Wagler hit a pair of free throws to give Illinois a 67-59 lead with 1:12 to play.
“Yeah, we knew Keaton was going to be good early,” Underwood said. “We had a scrimmage with Florida that was very physical, very competitive, and at times he was the best player on the court. That was shocking to me.
“Then how you handle a little adversity, then how you handle crowds, being on the road, and nothing fazed him. He just continued to show that poise.”
José de Jesus Ortiz
Founder & Editor in Chief
Award-winning writer Jose de Jesus Ortiz, a former lead sports columnist at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, has covered Major League Baseball since 1997 in Los Angeles, St. Petersburg, New York and Houston. He was the first Latino to serve as president of the Baseball Writers' Association of America.
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