The top remaining transfer in the college basketball transfer portal Coleman Hawkins has decided to play his final year of eligibility at Kansas State in the 2024-25 season.
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— Coleman Hawkins (@colehawk23) June 14, 2024
The 6-foot-10 forward can add a post presence and be a perennial outside shooter. At Illinois, Hawkins averaged 12.1 points/game and 6.1 rebounds/game, shooting a career high 45%, including 37% on three-pointers. His efforts earned him a Second Team All-Big 10 honor by the Associated Press. Illinois finished 29-9 in the 2023-24 season, finishing 2nd in the Big 10 behind national runners-up Purdue. They advanced all the way to the Elite 8 in the NCAA Tournament before falling to eventual national champions UConn.
The Sacramento, Calif. native committed to Illinois prior to the 2020-21 season after being a three-star recruit out of Prolific Prep School. Hawkins played 25 games averaging six minutes per game his freshman year before earning more playing time in his sophomore season. In his four years with the Fighting Illini, Hawkins averaged 7.8 PPG and 4.6 RPG. He is the first player in Illinois program history to have 900+ points, 500+ rebounds, 200+ assists, 100+ blocks and 100+ steals in his career.
The state of Kansas is nothing new to the Hawkins family. Coleman’s sister, Bailey, played two years of basketball at Newman University in Wichita from 2019-21.
Hawkins adds to an already stacked Wildcats transfer class. KSU already picked up key transfers such as Dug McDaniel from Michigan, Ugonna Onyenso from Kentucky, Achor Achor from Samford, Brendan Hausen from Villanova, Baye Fall from Arkansas, Max Jones from Cal State Fullerton and CJ Jones from Illinois-Chicago.
According to 247Sports, K-State now has the 12th best transfer class over this offseason. The ranking is the third best in the Big 12, behind in-state rival Kansas (No. 3 overall) and West Virginia (No. 6 overall). Arkansas has the No. 1 overall transfer class with the addition of head coach John Calipari.
