Gophers find their point guard in Howard transfer Elijah Hawkins
The Golden Gophers added a much-needed point guard via the transfer portal on Monday as Elijah Hawkins announced his commitment to the University of Minnesota.
Hawkins will bring his 5-foot-11, 152-pound body into the rough and tumble Big Ten. He comes to Minnesota after leading Howard University to the NCAA tournament this past season, when he averaged 12.9 points, 3.6 rebounds and 6 assists per game.
Hawkins had 12 points and 8 assists in Howard's loss to Kansas in the opening round of the NCAA tournament in March.
The biggest stat that jumps off the statistics page that Hawkins shot 46.6% from 3 last season, making 54 of 116 attempts. That was a huge improvement from his freshman season when he shot 29.7% from 3.
Minnesota was in desperate need of a point guard after Ta'lon Cooper entered the transfer portal and Taurus Samuels ran out of eligibility. Minnesota also lost Jamison Battle, Treyton Thompson and Jaden Henley to the transfer portal.
Hawkins projects to be a potential starter and certainly a key player along with the likes of Pharrel Payne, Joshua Ola-Joseph, Braeden Carrington, Dawson Garcia, Kadyn Betts, incoming freshman Cam Christie and Parker Fox and Isaiah Ihnen, the latter two of whom returning from injuries that kept them out all of last season.
Cooper was second in the Big Ten at 6.3 assists per game last season. That ranked seventh nationally, and Hawkins was right behind him at 11th with 6 per game.
Here are some highlights of Hawkins from his sophomore season at Howard.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.