It was surprising to hear that former Illinois basketball forward Coleman Hawkins was coming back to college and not returning to Champaign.
When Hawkins does commit to another team, it will be weird seeing him in a different jersey. The Illini have been his home for four years, and now he is moving on to make money somewhere else.
I think there are some good landing spots for Hawkins. My assumption is that he is coming back for money, so that is a key factor in where he will land. I put together a few options as the best landing spots for the talented forward.
I think the hottest name in the transfer portal to land Coleman Hawkins has to be the Arkansas Razorbacks. This is a program that has had a shot in the arm over the past couple of months.
I don’t believe Hawkins is coming back to the college game to improve greatly. He is going to be on his fifth year in the college game, so I imagine he wants to cash in for one final season.
Arkansas has the backing to get him the money. This offseason, the Razorbacks were able to lure Kentucky head coach John Calipari away from Lexington. On top of that, the program is bringing in a ton of transfer portal talent, and that talent isn’t free.
I don’t expect that well to run dry either. A big booster for the Razorbacks’ program is John Tyson of Tyson Foods. He is a friend of Calipari’s and is one of the major donors of the program. I imagine that money could help bring in someone like Hawkins.
From a basketball standpoint, Hawkins would probably see fewer minutes in year five than he did as a senior with Illinois. He logged 31.6 minutes per game last season, but Arkansas has depth in the frontcourt. They added Jonas Aidoo, 6-foot-11, 234 pounds, and Zvonimir Ivisic, 7-foot-2, 234 pounds, from the transfer portal. Hawkins would likely be in a timeshare with these two big men.
