Kansas star Hunter Dickinson wasted no time antagonizing a Kansas State transfer target.
On Saturday, Illinois forward Coleman Hawkins revealed that he was in Manhattan, Kansas, to visit the Wildcats. Dickinson responded with a dig at Kansas State.
“You’re only about an hour 30 away from the real college in Kansas,” Dickinson wrote.
In Dickinson’s first taste of the local rivalry, the Jayhawks suffered a 75-70 overtime loss to the Wildcats on Feb. 5. However, Kansas got payback with a 90-68 victory at Allen Fieldhouse in March.
After making the Elite Eight in Jerome Tang’s first season, Kansas State missed this year’s tournament with a 19-15 record. Hawkins could be a significant piece for the program.
The 6-foot-10 forward averaged 12.1 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks per game during his fourth year at Illinois. Hawkins led the Fighting Illini to the Elite Eight, where the No. 3 seed got steamrolled by an unstoppable UConn squad that won its second straight title.
On3 ranks Hawkins as the top player in the transfer portal yet to pick a school. Despite declaring that he was “100% set” on the 2024 NBA Draft, Hawkins withdrew with intentions of using his final season of college eligibility away from Illinois.
The Athletic’s Shams Charania repo