Shorewood alum Hawkinson happy to be a Cougar

If recruiting was an exact science, Josh Hawkinson might today be a top player for the University of Washington men’s basketball team.

After all, Hawkinson grew up in north Seattle, where he attended Shorewood High School. He was a fan of the Huskies as a boy, and enjoyed attending UW basketball and football games. Moreover, his mother, Nancy, played on the Washington women’s team back in the mid-1980s.

All along, Hawkinson said, “it was kind of built in for me to be a Husky.”

The problem was, Hawkinson was something of a late bloomer. He had no college scholarship offers until the summer after his junior year at Shorewood, and they were mostly from smaller California schools. Recruiting was picking up by the end of his senior season, but just a bit. Stanford and California were both showing interest, but Washington State was the only Pac-12 school to extend a scholarship offer.

As for the hometown Huskies, they were looking elsewhere.

Even a year into his college career, it seemed like all the recruiters might be right. Hawkinson was playing sparingly and producing negligibly, averaging 1.2 points and 1.6 rebounds in 6.4 minutes a game as a freshman.

But then a funny thing happened. Thanks to persistence, hard work and a new coach with a keen eye, the 6-foot-10 Hawkinson became one of the most improved players in college basketball. In a breakout sophomore season, he averaged 14.7 points and 10.8 rebounds a game, becoming the only Pac-12 player to average a double-double in 2014-15. Also, his 20 double-doubles led the league, were No. 4 in the nation, and were an all-time WSU record.

This season Hawkinson is averaging 16.9 points and 10.7 rebounds a game for the 9-5 Cougars, and he will take a string of nine consecutive double-doubles into Saturday’s noon game with Washington at WSU’s Beasley Coliseum.

Though his college basketball experience, beginning with recruiting and continuing through a discouraging first season under then-coach Ken Bone, has “definitely been a roller coaster for me … I’m really satisfied where I’m at,” Hawkinson said by phone from Pullman. “When I came in as a freshman, my goals were to try to help turn the program around. And with coach (Ernie) Kent and the players we have now, we’re headed in the right direction.”

During tough times, he went on, “it takes a lot of resilience and ability to foresee in the future. My freshman year, there might’ve been times when I was frustrated with my (lack of) playing time. But you have to push through that. And when the opportunity presents itself, you have to take it and always be ready for it.”

Credit Kent with seeing potential that Bone did not. While Bone wanted Hawkinson to be primarily a low-post player, Kent saw someone who could also slide to the perimeter and force defenses to honor his outside shot. A player, Kent explained, that can “do a number of things ­— rebound, score inside, stretch the (defense) and shoot (3-pointers), and really think the game because he’s put in a position to handle the ball a lot.”

Kent had similar players in previous coaching stints at St. Mary’s and Oregon, “and Josh Hawkinson fit the exact same mold. Only when you duplicate the mold you try to find a little bit better, and we found a little bit better in Josh Hawkinson. He fits it perfectly as to how we would play … (and) he just continues to amaze me.”

For Hawkinson, games against Washington will always be special. He remembers a Jan. 10 meeting last season in Seattle as “probably the most fun I’ve ever had in a college game.” In the late moments Hawkinson scored, was fouled and added the free throw to help clinch an 80-77 victory over the Huskies.

“When we were able to beat them at the UW, in my home city, and in front of all my family and friends, it was a huge moment for me,” he said. “I was super excited.”

As for UW coach Lorenzo Romar, who missed the chance to have Hawkinson in his program, “I’ve talked to him a bunch (in recent years). I remember one time he told me, and I think it was after one of the games in my sophomore year, that he regrets not giving me a scholarship. He didn’t see me being a double-double guy, and he told me how much better I’d gotten since he’d seen me play in high school.”

Of course, Romar’s loss has turned into Kent’s gain. “As things worked out,” Kent said, “(Hawkinson) is happy that I’m here. And I’m happy that he’s still here.”