Kansas State basketball ‘shakes off cobwebs’ in exhibition victory over Fort Hays State

MANHATTAN — If Kansas State’s basketball team needed a reminder that exhibition games seldom are perfect, look no further than Wildcat forward Coleman Hawkins.

For Hawkins, a 6-foot-10 super-senior transfer from Illinois, just getting inside Bramlage Coliseum for Tuesday night’s game against Fort Hays State was a challenge.

“I didn’t know how to get through the back door,” Hawkins said with a smile after the Wildcats passed their lone exhibition test with a 70-56 victory over Division II Fort Hays before a crowd of 9,526. “I had to ride with coach (Rodney) Perry, and my apartment is literally right there (next to the arena), so that was the only struggle.”

Once inside the building, Hawkins showed the versatility that head coach Jerome Tang envisioned when signing him in the spring, stuffing the stat sheet in his 32 minutes of action.

“Man, he just does everything. Swiss Army knife, right?” Tang said of Hawkins, who finished with 13 points, seven rebounds, six assists, two steals and a blocked shot. “He does a lot of things to make the game easy for other people, and it’s just about us learning how to play with each other.

“That’s going to continue to help us, but he was a bright spot.”

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Kansas State forward Coleman Hawkins (33) puts up a shot against Fort Hays State during their exhibition game Tuesday night at Bramlage Coliseum.

As for Hawkins, other than the while back door thing, he enjoyed his first taste of Bramlage, even if the crowd wasn’t quite at its 11,010 capacity.

“It was cool,” Hawkins said. “I can’t wait until it fills up, but to see people lined up outside for an exhibition game is great.

“I think it was a great experience, and it was good to dust off the cobwebs and get the wheels turning a little and finally play in front of a crowd.”

The crowd saw far from a flawless performance…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/kansas-state-basketball-shakes-off-174506889.html

Author : The Topeka Capital-Journal

Publish date : 2024-10-30 17:45:00

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