Coleman Hawkins on UConn matchup: 'I wouldn't say it's necessarily intimidating'

Illinois is through to the Elite Eight and is just one win from the school’s sixth-ever Final Four appearance and first since 2008. Brad Underwood‘s team has caught fire and has not lost a game since March 5, dating back to the regular season. The Illini still want three more but one issue stands in their way.

That issue is UConn, undoubtedly the best team in the NCAA Tournament thus far. None of their games have been close, with the Huskies winning by an average of 28.7 points. The latest was against San Diego State on Thursday, a dismantling from the beginning.

Going up against the reigning national champions could be seen as a daunting task and potentially even intimidating. Illinois’ Coleman Hawkins is ready for the challenge though, having a ton of respect for what UConn has done over the last two years.

“I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily intimidating, but I think we have — personally I have more of a respect for them,” Hawkins said. “I think it’s a higher level of respect. I think they’ve been playing great all year. I think they’re well-coached, and they do what they do. As we learn more about them, I’ll become much more familiar with them, but definitely have a higher level of respect for them and their culture and what they do.”

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Illinois has played some high-level ball recently too. While the first weekend drew two double-digit seeds, they took down Iowa State by three points thanks to 29 points via Terrence Shannon Jr. Hawkins was in double-figures too, having 12 points on 50% shooting from the field.

While the Illini might be underdogs, there is self-belief within the locker room. UConn will have to come out and match up against a pretty tough team too.

“I have a lot of respect for them and what they’ve done,” Marcus Domask said. “We’ve played a lot of college basketball. I’ve played a lot of teams that are supposed to beat us, if you say they’re supposed to beat us. We’ll figure out how to guard them and how to score on us, but they have to do the same for well. It’s just another game for us really.”

Whichever of the two Goliaths wins, a spot in the Final Four will await them. Some long flights down to Phoenix would be on the docket but quite worth it. UConn will definitely be favored but there will be no fear coming from the Illinois sideline.