After Kansas State beat Kansas 81-73 on Saturday in Manhattan, K-State big man Coleman Hawkins was asked about his rivalry with Hunter Dickinson.
Hawkins paused, appeared to total the wins over Dickinson in his head, and correctly came to the conclusion of 6-1. Hawkins and Dickinson faced each other on multiple occasions when he was at Illinois and Dickinson was at Michigan.
Here’s the video of Hawkins’ response after the K-State victory.
Technically, Hawkins could make the case he is 7-1 vs. Dickinson, because there was an exhibition between the two where Illinois also beat Kansas when the two faced off. But officially, it’s five wins at Illinois, and now one at K-State against Dickinson-led teams.
But either way, Hawkins is clearly feeling good with his Wildcats winning five in a row to get back to .500 at 6-6 in the Big 12, with three of these five wins over ranked teams. Hawkins finished a complete game with 12 points, 5 rebounds, 8 assists and 5 blocks. Dickinson was no slouch on the day, dropping 21 points and grabbing 9 rebounds.
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But it’s K-State who is now one of the hottest teams in the country as they try to get themselves back into the NCAA Tournament conversation.
Meantime, Kansas entered the day as a No. 3 seed, according to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi. But, KU is now just 7-5 in the Big 12, one game ahead of Kansas State.
K-State will definitely be in the conversation if they can pull off a sixth-straight win on Tuesday night when they host No. 20 Arizona. Meantime, Kansas will look to bounce back on Tuesday at home against lowly Colorado.
