I totally agree that Hawkins has more basketball talent than Johns and is thus more likely to reach his potential that BJJ ever was. I think Brandon had the confidence limitation but also physically was stuck between positions at the 4/5. He wasn’t good at either of them - he was too small and lacking touch around the rim to be a center and he wasn’t athletic enough and struggled with his shot at the PF.
Where I drew the comp, however, was that both Johns and Hawkins had moments that fans clung to as a reason for hope. Johns played well when Livers got hurt and people extrapolated that into a meaningful role the following year. Granted, even the biggest Johns supporters topped out as “25mpg solid starter” while Hawkins is topping out at “all B10 star”.
The reality is that Hawkins has played 58 career games and scored in double figures just 7 times. Only 3 of those 7 were against P6 schools. Some are hoping he’s a stretch-5 but he’s taken 78 threes in two seasons but hit under 30% of them. Most of the hype seems to be around him playing pretty well in 3 of their last 4 games (sounds like BJJ). I’ll concede that he’s athletic and skilled, but I’m not sure how a 200 pound center holds up in this conference and I’m not sure they can play him at the 4 due to their roster construction.
I could see Hawkins have a Denzel Valentine type career. Right now he’s in his “Tragic” Johnson phase where his trash-talk doesn’t match his level of play. I don’t think he’ll be a Big Ten Player of the Year* but if he stays four he could be a winning player.
*Caris Levert was hurt the year Valentine won the award.
The big difference is that Hawkins flashes some talent that is very valuable and rare (playmaking big) that Johns never really showed. Johns was productive in spots when people didn’t expect him to be, but I’m not sure he never really flashed anything that made you think he could be a top 3ish player on a team.
Good example of this is that Hawkins had 50 assists last year, and JOhns has 38 ever.
Yes you mentioned DJ on the pod and that did make a lot of sense, I think. Both are from Sacramento as well! DJ Wilson truly came out of nowhere though whereas Hawkins at least has something to build off of. If Illinois can get sophomore DJ Wilson caliber play from Hawkins they should take that all day.
Denzel also was extremely good in a somwhat confined (the 5th starter) as a sophomore. Hawkins was a mid-rotation player whose overall impact was…not that good.
As I said - I think he flashes a ton of talent, enough to make a coach give him a real crack.
I’m trying to get my hands on a box score but word is they structured it like a real game and Mady Sissoko played 27 minutes and totaled 1 point and 5 rebounds.
That said it’s crazy that MSU hung with Tennessee if that’s what they got from the C spot.
MSUs best case would have to be Sissoko being an elite defender who can stay above 100 ORtg on low usage, right? I’d still say there’s a path to MSU being decent if that’s who he is, but we haven’t seen a lot of good defense so far, either.