Illinois basketball standout Coleman Hawkins, the top available player in the 2024 transfer portal cycle, scheduled a visit to LSU and will be on campus in Baton Rouge next weekend, CBS Sports’ Cameron Salerno confirmed. Hawkins previously canceled a visit to Louisville and is instead in the middle of a trip to Kansas State. He is the No. 21 overall player and fourth-ranked power forward in the transfer portal.
Hawkins developed into one of the top scorers at Illinois during his time with the Fighting Illini. He averaged a career-best 12.1 points last season and served in a key role on the team’s first Elite Eight run since 2005. He connected from the field at a 45.1% clip and drilled 36.9% of his 3-point attempts.
Experience and positional versatility make Hawkins one of the top overall players on the transfer market this offseason. He played both power forward and center across four years at Illinois and has star potential as an immediate contributor to a high-major program.
Hawkins’ fit at LSU is more straightforward than that at Kansas State. The Wildcats already landed a pair of prized transfers this cycle in former Kentucky big man Ugonna Onyenso and ex-Samford standout Achor Achor, both of whom project as starting-caliber options in the K-State frontcourt. Hawkins could also visit other programs, including SMU, before he makes a decision, Salerno reported.
Hawkins narrowed down his potential transfer destinations last month at the NBA Draft Combine when he took clear shots at Illinois, the Big Ten and the Big East. The 6-foot-10, 225-pound forward was one of the standout performers at the combine but elected to utilize his final year of eligibility and return to the college ranks.
“I will never play in the Big Ten again. I wouldn’t play in the Big East,” Hawkins said at the NBA Draft Combine. “I would go somewhere with a football team where I can enjoy a football game. Some schools have reached out, but some schools I’ve just been honest with them and I haven’t wasted their time. I just flat out told them that’s just not somewhere I would even consider going.”
The decision to return to college and hit the transfer portal came as somewhat of a surprise after Hawkins initially said at a combine scrimmage that he feels as though he has “outgrown college basketball.” His fifth year of eligibility stems from the additional year offered to student-athletes whose 2020-21 campaign ran through the COVID-19 pandemic.
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“I’m ready to just give my life to basketball, if that makes sense,” Hawkins said last month. “Signing that contract, it becomes real life and it’s not college. You could get away with not going hard in practice or kind of taking plays off. You could get mad at me for saying that, but not everybody’s going 100% like that. I play hard in games and things like that, but it would be real-life situations. The moment I stay in this draft — and I think I’m ready for that, I’m ready for my game to grow, I’m ready for my body to change, and I’m ready to just open up to a whole new world of basketball that I’ve never experienced.”
