5 painful observations from the Illinois basketball loss to Penn State

4. One of the worst games of Coleman Hawkins’ Illinois career

Again, I am piggybacking off the previous slide. It was unacceptable for those experienced players to have six turnovers in the final 10 minutes of the game against Penn State.

Do you know why Terrence Shannon Jr. and Marcus Domask are going to get more leniency for those turnovers? Because they can score the basketball at a high clip. Shannon finished with a career-high 35 points, and Domask had 15 points on 6-of-13 shooting from the floor.

Coleman Hawkins, on the other hand, doesn’t get a pass. He is in his fourth year at Illinois, and I would argue he just dropped one of his worst games as a member of the program.

Hawkins finished the Penn State game with nine points, five rebounds, one steal, one assist, and one block. Those are okay numbers. But what isn’t an okay number is his five turnovers on the night. If a 6-foot-10 player has as many turnovers as rebounds, that is a pretty bad night.

The shooting was off for Hawkins as well. He was 3-of-11 from the floor with all three makes coming from behind the three-point arc. His shot selection wasn’t great, in my opinion. He forced shots, and most of them were from beyond the NBA three-point arc.

To put the icing on the cake, Hawkins had the foul that sent Penn State to the free throw line to take the lead 90-89. This was the ending to one of the worst games I have ever seen out of Hawkins. As a senior, I expect leadership and discipline. On Wednesday night, I saw none of that from Hawkins.