Ep. 1169 - Adam Finkelstein on Keaton Wagler's NBA Draft stock, Illini basketball's highly-rated additions

Illini Inquirer Podcast: An Illinois Fighting Illini athletics podcast

247Sports, Illinois, Illinois Football, Illinois Basketball, Illinois Athletics, College Football, C

Sports, Football

4.9 • 574 Ratings

🗓️ 7 May 2026

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

CBS Sports' director of basketball scouting Adam Finkelstein joins Illini Inquirer's Jeremy Werner to discuss Illinois basketball's retention and highly-rated additions and Keaton Wagler's NBA Draft stock. Finkelstein discusses the importance of the Illini's retention and what Providence transfer guard Stefan Vaaks and top-50 Class of 2026 prospects Quentin Coleman and Lucas Morillo bring to the Illini. Then Finkelstein breaks down how Wagler stacks up in the 2026 NBA Draft class, Kylan Boswell's NBA chances and whether Andrej Stojakovic could make the NBA leap now.

SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS

Columbia Street Roastery: Head to ⁠⁠CSRcoffee.com⁠ and use code IlliniAllTheWay to get 10 percent off your first order and get free shipping on orders of over $45.
Tushy: If you’re not Team TUSHY, you’re not Team Clean. For a limited time, our listeners get 10% off their first bidet order when you use code ILLINI at checkout. That’s 10% off your first bidet order at HelloTUSHY.com with promo code ILLINI.

Follow the Illini Inquirer Podcast on:

Go VIP for just 50% OFF: https://tinyurl.com/2fkhmjdz

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Today on the online choir podcast, Adam Finkelstein, director of basketball scouting for CBS Sports, joins me to take a deep dive, not only in Illinois
0:21.7	basketball's roster, but also the NBA draft. The NBA draft lottery is on Sunday. I know
0:28.4	us Bulls fans are hoping for a little lottery luck like we got back in what 2008. We could use it.
0:34.7	The new Bowles executive vice president of basketball or whatever they call it.
0:40.7	Bryson Graham certainly could use a little bit of luck here as well to get this rebuild.
0:45.8	Yes, it is a rebuild off the right foot.
0:48.3	But I saved the Bulls question for last.
0:50.8	We focus on Illinois and Keaton Wogler.
0:55.6	Where does Adam have him ranked?
1:00.4	Where does he think he would best fit in the NBA? What questions does he have to answer through this process to kind of, I guess, jockey for position among a lot of these point guards in the
1:06.8	middle to late lottery? Adam, there's a great breakdown of Keaton Wogler. Also asking him about
1:12.5	Kyle and Boswell and his chance for the NBA and getting drafted and also about Andre
1:18.2	Stoyakovich, whether he thinks Andre would really consider making that leap to the NBA now or
1:23.0	whether it's best for him to return to college for another year. Also talk to Adam about Stefan Vox.
1:29.3	He's in Big East Country.
1:30.5	He asked him how he thinks Vox can grow his game in his second season in college with Illinois
1:35.2	after transferring from Providence.
1:37.7	And good stuff on Adam, not only on Quentin Coleman and his potential impact, but Lucas
1:42.4	Murillo feels like a guy we don't talk enough about.
1:45.1	Adam gave a great breakdown of Lucas Marilla's game and how he thinks he can fit in to the
1:49.9	2026-27 roster at Illinois, which obviously has very high expectations.
1:55.9	So Adam's awesome.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from 247Sports, Illinois, Illinois Football, Illinois Basketball, Illinois Athletics, College Football, C, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of 247Sports, Illinois, Illinois Football, Illinois Basketball, Illinois Athletics, College Football, C and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.