HOUSTON — Emanuel Sharp looked at the box score and shook his head. It just didn’t seem possible.
The number jumped off the paper on the table in front of Houston’s senior guard. It was the number of rebounds for Illinois star freshman and consensus second-team All-American Keaton Wagler.
Known primarily as a scorer, Wagler grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds and added 13 points as the third-seeded Fightin’ Illini bullied past second-seeded Houston 65-55 in a South Regional semifinal Thursday at the Toyota Center. The projected lottery pick helped Illinois (27-8) finish with a 43-34 advantage on the glass in a physical game that left much to be desired on the offensive end.
“Wagler had 12 rebounds?” Sharp said. “That’s crazy. We needed to do better on the boards.”
What’s even crazier is Wagler — listed at 6 feet 6 and 185 pounds — was the lightest player to see action for either team. It was the first double-digit rebounding game of his career. He went 3-of-6 from deep but missed 10 of his 14 overall field-goal attempts and three of five free throws.
But Wagler, who scored a career-high 46 points in a Jan. 24 win at Purdue, added three assists and two blocks and played solid defense in addition to his career-best rebounding performance. In contrast, Houston’s consensus All-American guard Kingston Flemings, also a freshman and projected lottery pick, had 11 points on 4-of-10 shooting.
The Cougars (30-7) shot only 34 percent from the floor in their lowest-scoring game of the season. Illinois entered the game second nationally in scoring offense at 84.7 points per game but got just enough offense at the right time to knock off Houston.
“I just try to come in here and do what my teammates need me to do to win the game,” said Wagler, who entered the night averaging 17.8 points and 4.9 rebounds. “If that’s score the ball, then score the ball. If that’s getting the ball out of my hands, like it was tonight, to get my teammates to make plays, I’ll do that. Coaches were telling us before the game: ‘It’s going to be a guard game to get rebounds. We need 10-plus rebounds out of the guards.’ So I took that challenge on.
“I tried to play as tough as I could.”
Houston coach Kelvin Sampson certainly noticed that from Wagler. The versatile guard had just two high-major offers coming out of Shawnee Mission (Kan.) Northwest after being ranked as the nation’s 150th-best Class of 2025 recruit by 247Sports.
“His frame doesn’t scream 12 rebounds,” Sampson said of Wagler. “But his toughness does.”
Illinois coach Brad Underwood called Wagler “a great listener” about understanding the importance of making an impact on the boards against Houston. Wagler had more rebounds than Houston’s rugged forward JoJo Tugler (4) and likely one-and-done big man Chris Cenac Jr. (10). He had four games with eight rebounds this season before his dominating effort on the glass against Houston, which was in the Sweet Sixteen for the seventh consecutive season.
“We knew that Cenac and Tugler back-tap a lot of balls; they’re elite at it,” Underwood said. “So our bigs were going to have to hit bodies and our guards were going to have to come up and clean it up. We needed a big rebounding game from our guards, and I thought Keaton just takes everything to heart.”
Underwood noted “what a joy it is to coach” Wagler, who has helped Illinois return to the Elite Eight for the 11th time in program history and its second appearance in three seasons with Underwood. Wagler joins Duke’s Cameron Boozer as the only high-major first-year players this season to average at least 17.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.0 assists.
With a win Saturday against Big Ten foe Iowa (24-12), the South Region’s ninth seed, the Illini will advance to the program’s first Final Four since finishing as the national runner-up to North Carolina in 2004-05. Illinois is seeking its first national championship, and Wagler might have the all-around game needed to bring a title back to Champaign.
“Offense finds him, and he’s going to score some points,” Underwood said. “But he’s always going to make the right play, and he’s going to do whatever it takes to win. Tonight, it was defend and rebound at a really high level, and he did that.”
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