Illinois Basketball: Illini in a tough fight for Coleman Hawkins

The Illinois basketball team has been doing some work on the recruiting trail over the last couple of days.

One of the biggest recruits the Illini are in the running for is Coleman Hawkins. Hawkins is a 6-foot-10, 195-pound power forward from Prolific Prep High School in Antelope, California. He is rated as a three-star recruit who is the No. 191 player in the class of 2020 and the No. 31 power forward in the nation. He is also the No. 20 player in the state of California.

Hawkins has started to take his official visits. His first visit was to Illinois this past weekend where he got to experience the campus and the team environment. He even mentioned to the Writing Illini that the visit was great.

On Monday, there were rumors that Hawkins had narrowed his list down to just three programs he will be choosing from. The three programs that were rumored were Rutgers, San Diego State and Illinois. These rumors are now debunked as Hawkins has his recruitment still open.

I would have to assume Illinois is right there in the running for this kid, though. They did get his first official visit, and he enjoyed the trip to Champaign. But Rutgers is putting the full-court press on him, though.

According to Adam Zagoria of Zagsblog, the coaching staff of Rutgers made the trip to Prolific Prep to visit Hawkins yesterday. That means they got on a plane and made the trip out to California when Hawkins was still on his visit to Illinois. That is a coaching staff that is all-in on this kid and it is scary.

I would think Illinois is in the lead here, though. Hawkins loved the visit. There is plenty of room on the roster right now. And I believe Hawkins will get a ton of playing time early on in his career. Hopefully, we can close him out and continue building.