In West Lafayette, Illinois, the excitement was palpable among the Illini team as they witnessed freshman guard Keaton Wagler making history on the basketball court. Wagler astoundingly scored 46 points during an away game against Purdue, shattering the previous freshman single-game scoring record held by Giorgi Bezhanishvili.

Illini head coach Brad Underwood couldn’t have been prouder. “That’s just Keaton being Keaton,” Underwood remarked. “He has this incredible ability to focus solely on making the right basketball play. Tonight, that meant scoring, and he did so with his characteristic calm. He’s not one to show much emotion, but you could see his excitement, and his teammates were just as thrilled. That’s the beauty of watching Keaton play.”

Despite his achievement, Wagler remained modest, reflecting on his surprise at the performance. The only comparable experience he could recall was a high school game where he managed to score 32 points. “It’s surreal. I never imagined doing something like this,” Wagler admitted. “I just let the game flow naturally, and tonight it happened to be my night. My teammates recognized that and kept feeding me the ball, allowing me to do my thing.”

Wagler appeared humbly surprised by his own performance, saying the only time he could remember going on a run like that was in a high school game where he scored 32 points.

“It’s a, it’s a crazy thing I really never thought that I would do,” said Wagler. “But, you know, I just let, you know, the game come to me and it was my night tonight. I think my teammates knew that, too, so they were trying to find me the ball. And, you know, let me just go to work. And, you know, that’s what happened.”

“I have never had a teammate that scores that much points in the game,” said fellow Illini freshman David Mirkovic. “He just kept going and like he got 46 like, it’s crazy. I don’t even have words to describe that. Like, best performance for sure I ever seen. Incredible. Just incredible.”

Wagler and the Illini are back at the State Farm Center on Thursday, January 29 against Washington.