One name to keep an eye on in the 2020 class is 3-star forward Coleman Hawkins, who will be hooping it up for Prolific Prep in Napa, CA after spending his first two years at Antelope High School in Antelope, CA. Hawkins participated in the ninth annual Nor Cal Clash event at Chabot College at the end of August, giving us a chance to watch him play and see how things are coming along for him on the recruiting trail.
In the Nor Clash the seniors defeated the juniors 116-107, giving the seniors a 6-3 record all time. While the juniors came up short, Hawkins put together a nice game, finishing with 10 points and 8 rebounds on 5-9 shooting from the field.
“I was just trying to go with the flow,” Hawkins said of his performance. “I wasn’t going to try to do too much. Like get hurt or anything. I was just letting the game play. Some points came to me, I wasn’t forcing shots. I just wanted to have fun and it was cool. It was a cool event.”
At 6’8”, 210 pounds, Hawkins has great physical tools to work with. He runs the floor really well, has good length, and knows how to control the paint. In addition, he can push the ball in transition and is developing the ability to shoot it from three-point range. While he projects to be more of a power forward at the next level, he’s definitely got the tools to play small forward, a position he feels is his more natural position.
“Right now I’m trying to improve on getting to the basket, creating contact, and finishing,” Hawkins said of what he’s most working on. “I gotta work on my defense a lot. Sliding feet because I play the three, so I’m guarding a lot of quicker guards, too. So yeah, sliding my feet, getting low, and locking up guards. That’s one of the big things I’m working on right now.”
On the recruiting front, Hawkins only has a handful of offers, but he’s hoping that with a big junior year at Prolific Prep, he’ll garner more offers and interests from schools across the country.
“Right now I have only five offers,” Hawkins said of his recruitment. “A lot of interests. Offers from Rutgers, Detroit, Illinois, Arizona, and USC. And like I said, a lot of interests, a lot of people have been calling me, just about from everywhere, so just a little bit more time and hopefully more offers will roll in and we’ll see.
“Just get my name out there nationally. Because I’m at Prolific Prep right now. Get my name out there, let people see how well I can play basketball all across the nation, so I want people to know my name.”
While he doesn’t yet have an offer from Cal, Hawkins did visit the campus earlier in the summer. Cal is evaluating him closely and could offer him a scholarship if he has the kind of year he’s hoping to have.
“They’ve been saying some things like that, but we just gotta wait on it, keep putting in hard work, and hopefully next summer like I said, come up with more offers and stuff like that,” Hawkins said of the possibility of landing an offer. “I’ve been up there a few times just going to a Cal basketball game. Going in the locker room and stuff like that was very fun. It was a really cool campus. Coaches were very nice, players were very nice, nice facility, and I really like it up there. It was really cool.”
While Hawkins is a Nor Cal kid, he made it clear that he doesn’t have too strong of a preference of as to where he plays his college ball. The main thing he’s focused on is finding the right fit for him on the court, no matter where that may be.
“It doesn’t really matter to me. I’ll go anywhere,” Hawkins said. “I’ll go across the nation. Because I got family everywhere. They love to travel and come to my games. Anywhere is fine with me. So right now, like I said, I’m at Prolific Prep. I stay with a host family. I’m about an hour away. Some people are too scared to go an hour away from their home and go to school out somewhere else, but I’m not afraid to go out and have fun and play basketball.
“I wouldn’t say academics matter to me, but I’d say more of a school where I don’t have to worry about not necessarily people in my spot, but whatever works out for me to get to the next level is probably what I’ll be looking for the most.”
Given where he’s at in his recruitment, Hawkins doesn’t yet have a firm timetable for when he’ll trim his list and make his decision. His main focus in on getting better and putting himself in the best position possible to land in the right place.
“Probably next year,” Hawkins said of a decision timeline. “Later next year. I don’t want to rush anything. I want everything to play out well and not force anything. So I’m gonna wait probably until next year and we’ll see how it goes from there.”
At this point, the next major step for Coleman Hawkins as it pertains to Cal is getting that offer. The interest is definitely there and Cal will have plenty of opportunities to evaluate him given how close he is to Berkeley. If they do offer him a scholarship, they should factor to be a contender for his services given their proximity to home and up-tempo system that fits his style of play.
