UNLV BASKETBALL: Versatile Hawkins has a shot - Sports

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Nov. 04, 2009
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

UNLV BASKETBALL: Versatile Hawkins has a shot

Freshman defensive specialist works on offense

By MATT YOUMANS
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

UNLV Baseball

JUSTIN HAWKINS

CLASS: Freshman

POSITION: Guard

HOMETOWN: Los Angeles

HEIGHT: 6 feet 3 inches

WEIGHT: 190

BIRTHDATE: Oct. 10, 1990

UNLV freshman Justin Hawkins looks to move the ball against Oscar Bellfield during a recent practice at Cox Pavilion.
Photo by K.M. Cannon.

Balancing multiple commitments and interests is an act Justin Hawkins learns more about each day. Off the basketball court, the UNLV freshman is plenty versatile.

He writes poetry. He cooks and does laundry. He plans to declare a double major in business management and hotel administration.

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"I'm serious about school. It runs in my family," said Hawkins, whose parents are lawyers.

As a player, the 6-foot-3-inch guard is working equally as hard on becoming a multidimensional talent. That was evident in July and August, when he put up 500 to 1,000 jump shots daily to prove he's not solely a defensive specialist.

"I spent countless hours in the gym working on pull-up jumpers and knocking down the outside 3-pointer," he said. "I was there before class, after class and after lifting weights, in the gym just shooting.

"The minimum was 500 shots. The only day I took off was Sundays. The coaches recruited me for defense, but they said I've got to improve my offense."

Rebels coach Lon Kruger has signed higher profile recruits than Hawkins, who was not a big-time scorer at Woodland Hills (Calif.) Taft High School. Kruger, however, has nothing but high praise for Hawkins and his variety of skills.

A strong defender, Hawkins has been stroking jumpers in practices to show a hint of his scoring potential.

"He probably didn't look to score as much with his high school team as he could have, and I think because of that people probably think he's a defensive guy," Kruger said. "He's very good defensively, but I think he's also very capable offensively.

"Justin is just a really good player, to start with. He does all the little things. He's a great teammate. He cares about nothing except his team winning."

Hawkins stuffed stat sheets as a prep senior by averaging 15.0 points and about seven rebounds, six assists, three steals and two blocks per game.

Playing time will be more difficult for him to find this season in UNLV's backcourt led by juniors Derrick Jasper, Tre'Von Willis and Kendall Wallace, sophomore Oscar Bellfield and senior Steve Jones. But Hawkins is eager to try to earn his minutes.

"If there was no competition, we would be mediocre, and we're trying to go for great things," he said. "I wouldn't allow myself to sit down and just watch.

"I feel I'm playing real well right now. All the coaches are giving me positive feedback. The players are giving me positive feedback as well, saying what I'm doing well and what I'm doing wrong."

Hawkins' talent for writing, which he picked up in seventh grade, gets positive reviews from his mother, Carmen.

"I was just writing stuff down, kind of like a journal. I didn't think of it as poetry when I was in high school," Hawkins said. "But my mom and my brother started reading some of my work and they said, after you get the melody and the words and the rhythm, it's actually poetry."

Kruger said he's not penciling in Hawkins, guard Anthony Marshall from Mojave High or 6-11 forward Carlos Lopez from Findlay Prep as redshirt candidates on a deep roster.

"We haven't talked about it at this point," Kruger said. "Based on what we've seen, they're very mature freshmen, physically and emotionally as players they very much understand what's going on."

Hawkins and Marshall are roommates in a campus dorm, sticking together and learning the time management requirements of college.

"It's easier with (Marshall) being here. We lean on each other for support," Hawkins said. "We're always around each other, all day every day and even on the weekends.

"You don't have your parents there in your ear saying, 'You've got to go to this right now.' I'm doing everything on my own. My mom told me it's going to be all on me when I get to college. There's not going to be anyone here to baby me around anymore. You've got to grow up fast."

Contact reporter Matt Youmans at myoumans@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2907.

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Please enter your name Name: Please enter your email Email: Please enter a comment COMMENTS : (word count limit is 300) You have reached the maximum number of words allowed Current Word Count: Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background. ksffermann wrote on November 08, 2009 07:05 AM: Justin, Two words of advice. 1. Don't listent to pinheads like elimanate. 2. Be patient, your time will certainly come. Good luck to you. Ksiff wrote on November 08, 2009 07:03 AM: Justin, Two words of advice. 1. Don't listen to pinheads like Eliminate. 2. Be patient, learn from the upper classmen ahead of you, there's a good group ahead of you. Your time will certainly come. rebel323 wrote on November 04, 2009 11:26 PM: Is Eliminate_UNLV_sports actually being serious. I bust out laughing when I read this! rebelsfan11 wrote on November 04, 2009 09:28 PM: eliminate, if all these things are true..show us links that prove that. UNLV basketball has the highest attenedance of any bball program on the WEST COAST..that has to bring in quite a bit of money. this guy knows nothing. rebelsfan11 wrote on November 04, 2009 06:51 PM: this guy is full of it..a supporter of unlv BASKETBALL just donated $12.6 million (no typo) to UNLV sports. so thats 12.6 mill the school wouldnt see without the basketball team. and yes with all the revenue it has..it does pay its own bills. eli, if it doesn't pay its own bills, give me a link to an article that says that. until you give proof to your reasonings, every person that reads what you have to say will think you are absolutely ridiculous. Eliminate_UNLV_sports wrote on November 04, 2009 05:57 PM: JRH would advise you to not respond to my posts. Fuzzy accounting. UNLV basketball does not pay its own way. This "entitled" mentality has got STOP. Nobody deserves education, or a playing field, though I can be reasonable. I have no problem supporting local Parks and Rec. I do object to paying for someone's pro sports career. There are any number of private leagues to choose from. Why must Nevada taxpayers subsidize billionaire owners of NBA/NFL/MLB teams? I have no problem supporting a small state university geared towards applied science. Indeed, UNR was set up to be truly self-supporting for that purpose. If UNLV was reorganized along those limited lines, I wouldn't mind contributing. The not-so academically talented should not waste their time (and my money) in NSHE. If they insist, let them pay the full cost of it. $800 per credit sounds about right. unlvrebelx wrote on November 04, 2009 05:05 PM: Yet...UNLV basketball has ALWAYS paid its own bills AND those of other athletic programs in the department. So your full of it.....and now its time to go buy your full-priced ticket. Also...do you think academically talented are the only ones that deserve education? I disagree...many youth of today are athletically talented and in Southern Nevada, most of them NEVER get an opportunity to develop their talents beyond HS because we only has ONE college/university athletic program in a valley of over 2 million people...AND YOU WANT TO GET RID OF THE ONLY ONES WE HAVE?!?!?!?!?! Come on....just because you don't support college athletics, doesn't mean you can't use reason. Eliminate_UNLV_sports wrote on November 04, 2009 04:44 PM: Every two years the drumbeat rises to increase NSHE funding. We never hear a contrary view that Division I sports (and all the toxicity which goes along with it) is a big waste of money. If UNLV basketball was a completely private operation -- like the Wranglers -- you'd hear nothing more about it from me. I might even buy a full-price ticket to a game. As it stands now, I'll continue to blast them in forums like these, and urge everyone to BOYCOTT the games. HeHateMe wrote on November 04, 2009 02:14 PM: Eli, it is not your money. I pay to go to basketball games and football games. I paid to get TWO degrees from UNLV. I pay to take my kids to these games. You can't even pay attention long enough to figure out that UNLV sports doesn't need you. Go Away! Big_John wrote on November 04, 2009 11:28 AM: It is because of recruits like this that I love having Lon Kruger as our coach. Not only is this team building a program, they are building it with sound minds and good people. Many people were upset that it took a little time, but we will benefit for many years the careful recruitment and, at times, the dismissal of those who do not fit the system. Good job Coach Kruger, we're behind you. Read All Comments