Wednesday was the day for early entrants to withdraw their names from the NBA Draft and still be eligible to play college basketball. There were a few big names who made major decisions to return to college basketball while a few others opted to bet on themselves and keep their names in the draft. The Illinois Fighting Illini were awaiting decisions on a pair of key players and early in the day they got a major boost with Terrence Shannon Jr. announcing he would withdraw his name and return to school. They got another big announcement with Coleman Hawkins deciding to withdraw his name from the NBA Draft and return for his senior season as per Jonathan Givony of ESPN.
Coleman Hawkins is withdrawing from the NBA draft and returning to Illinois for his senior season, he told ESPN. Big day for Illinois who also retained leading scorer TJ Shannon. pic.twitter.com/M6uLY2t9rW
— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) June 1, 2023
Coleman Hawkins withdrawing from the NBA Draft along with Terrence Shannon Jr. ensures that Illinois will have a strong roster next season. Hawkins was probably going to be a second round pick should he have kept his name in the draft. As a junior last season, Hawkins had the best year of his college basketball career.
Hawkins averaged 9.9 points per game, 6.3 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 1.1 steals and 1.2 blocked shots with splits of 44.1 percent shooting from the field, 28 percent shooting from the three-point line and 61.4 percent shooting from the free-throw line. He was permanent fixture in the starting lineup starting all 33 games he played in compared to only 14 starts the year before as a sophomore.
An athletic forward, Hawkins is a strong and efficient finisher around the basket. He'll have one more season to improve his draft stock.
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