Conventional wisdom suggests that age and guard play typically loom large in the NCAA Tournament. That was certainly the case for the Texas Tech basketball team in the first weekend of the event as senior point guard Elijah Hawkins helped carry his team to the Sweet 16.
Sure, in each game Tech played this past weekend in Wichita, Kansas, other Red Raiders played the starring role. Thursday night, Kerwin Walton was the hero with 27 points as Tech beat UNCW 82-72. That was almost 22 points above his season scoring average.
Then, in round two, Darrion Williams had 28 points and JT Toppin added 25 to push the Red Raiders past Drake 77-64. That night, their combined 50 points in the paint was what made the difference in the victory.
However, in both games, Hawkins was a consistent and instrumental component of the Texas Tech game plan. What's more, his excellence was not just limited to one end of the court.
Texas Tech gets the best version of Elijah Hawkins in the NCAA Tournament
In round one, Hawkins was the Red Raiders' second-best guard behind Walton. What's more, it could be argued that his play on both ends of the floor was just as valuable to the victory as were the eight 3-pointers Walton drained on offense.
Hawkins finished that game against UNCW with 14 points, ten assists, and nine rebounds coming up just one rebound shy of a triple-double. The fact that the 5-foot-10 guard came away with nine boards in a physical game is nothing short of amazing and it is proof that Hawkins isn't afraid to mix it up down low despite his small stature.
However, it wasn't just the stats he amassed that helped Tech earn that win. That night, with Tech's best perimeter defender, Chance McMillian, sidelined, Hawkins drew the defensive assignment on UNCW's top guard, Donovan Newby, who averaged 14.4 points and 3.5 assits per game.
Hawkins was the spearhead of a defensive effort that limited Newby to just eight points on 2-10 shooting. That was as much of a key to the victory as anything any Red Raider did in round one.
Then, Hawkins followed that game up with a 16-point, seven-assist, three-rebound effort in the second-round victory over Drake. That showing was critical because, in the 77-64 win, the rest of the guards who played for the Red Raiders managed to score just six total points. That included Walton who was held scoreless for the game.
Additionally, Hawkins drew the assignment of guarding Drake's star guard, Bennett Stirtz. Though Stirtz had 21 points in the loss, Hawkins made him work extremely hard for those points and he forced Bennett into a 9-19 shooting performance that included going just 2-6 from beyond the arc.
Hawkins is showing why Texas Tech brought him into the fold
Last offseason, Tech was in desperate need of a ball-dominant point guard after losing Joe Toussaint to graduation. The Red Raiders turned to Hawkins to fill that void.
But after transferring in from Minnesota, Hawkins got off to a bit of a slow start. He began the season sidelined missing Tech's first two games.
Then, when he returned, it took some time for him to figure out his place on this team. In his first nine appearances as a Red Raider, he scored in double figures just twice. What's more, he had only two games with a game score over 10.0. (Game score is a metric that evaluates a player's overall impact on a game by factoring in all statistical components. A score of 10,0 is considered average while a score of 40,0 is considered dominant.)
Fortunately, in Big 12 play, Hawkins improved his play. He had 11 games with at least 10 points and he had double-doubles against Utah, Kansas State, and Arizona. On top of that, he had 17 big points against Houston as the Red Raiders stunned the Cougars in Houston and he had a season-high 22 points at BYU when the Red Raiders took down the other Cougars on the road. Of course, both of those teams and Arizona are still alive in the NCAA Tournament along with the Red Raiders.
However, as Big 12 play wrapped up, Hawkins' production dipped. In the final three games of the regular season, he only scored eight, three, and six points respectively, and in two of those games, he had no more than four assists. That left many to wonder if the 20-game Big 12 schedule had worn down the undersized guard.
Thankfully, he's been revitalized in the post season and his best work has come as McMillian has missed the last three games.
In the first two games of the NCAA Tournament, Hawkins had game scores of 13.7 and 17.6. Those are two of the top seven game scores he's produced this season.
What makes those performances all the more impressive is that they have come when extra attention has been focused on Hawkins due to the absence of McMillian and the untimely shooting woes of freshman guard Christian Anderson.
Without McMillian and Anderson carrying heavy loads as they did throughout the regular season, Hawkins has had to take on an ever greater burden on both ends of the floor.
It has been a challenge that he's been ready for. He has been one of the best point guards in the tournament thus far and his excellence has been crucial in helping the Red Raiders get to the Sweet 16. In the process, Hawkins has shown why he was so coveted by Texas Tech last offseason as he's been the straw that has stirred the drink in the NCAA Tournament.