Keaton Wagler leads deep group of talented freshmen still putting their imprint on March Madness

INDIANAPOLIS — Keaton Wagler’s high school basketball transcript contained everything a college coach would want in a recruit. The 6-foot-6 sharp-shooting Illinois guard helped Shawnee Mission Northwest High School in Kansas win its first two state titles, one coming with a perfect season. He won a school record 80 games and finished among the top five on the school’s career lists in scoring, rebounds, assists and steals.

He earned back-to-back Kansas Class 6A state player of the year awards in 2024 and 2025 and was the state’s 2025 Gatorade Player of the Year as recruiting analysts gave Wagler a four-star grade. Yet, his seemingly sterling résumé didn’t translate into the kind of buzz surrounding flashier, more highly touted prospects in this year’s star-studded freshman class. Now, as the Final Four approaches, Wagler finds himself squarely in the spotlight as one of college basketball’s top March Madness newcomers.

“It’s definitely crazy,” he said after practice at Lucas Oil Stadium. “Playing for a state championship (last year), like I thought that’d be like the biggest thing I’d ever play in. But getting to a Final Four is definitely a lot bigger.

” The spoils of success readily are apparent everywhere you look in Indianapolis from signs outside the stadium declaring “the road ends here” to banners of each team’s top seven players hanging in the hallway outside the four locker rooms. Clearly, Wagler is not in Kansas anymore. Rather, he’s two wins away from capturing a national championship — just like the other young guns in town this weekend even if the script hasn’t exactly been by the book.