He then signed to play college basketball at Kentucky, where he stayed 4 years, advancing to the NCAA tournament Sweet Sixteen in 2001 and 2002 and to the Elite Eight in 2003.
[3] A left-handed guard,[4] he attended Potomac High School in Dumfries, where he was named in the Virginia All-AAA Second Team by the Washington Post.
[7] The Washington Post defined Hawkins the state's top sophomore,[6] and he was a first-team Class AAA All-State selection.
[17] Hawkins was recruited by many NCAA Division I schools: he had originally committed to play at New Mexico, but later signed with Kentucky in mid-November 1999, knowing that the program needed a point guard after the graduation of Wayne Turner.
[3] On January 5, 2002, he recorded a career high in assists with 10 against Mississippi State, and one week later he scored a game winner against South Carolina.
[3] In the 2002 NCAA tournament Hawkins started all the games and averaged 6.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 4.7 assists: the Wildcats were eliminated by Maryland in the Sweet Sixteen.
[3] Hawkins reappeared on the court on December 21 against Indiana after missing the first games of the year, and scored 4 points and had 5 rebounds and 5 assists in 26 minutes of play.
He then scored 14 points (a season high) on February 23, 2003, against Mississippi State, and he posted 9 assists in the SEC tournament win against Vanderbilt.
[3] In the 2003 NCAA tournament Hawkins debuted with 13 points and 6 assists in 22 minutes against IUPUI (2/3 from the three-point line), followed by another 13-point performance against Utah.
After a brief experience with Clermont-Ferrand in France, Hawkins joined the Fayetteville Patriots of the NBA Development League, and in the 2005–06 season he started in 9 out of his 14 appearances, averaging 9.5 points, 2.1 rebounds and 6.1 assists per game.
[29] He then went back to Europe and signed with Polish PLK team Bank BPS Kwidzyn, and in his first season in Poland he averaged 6.9 points, 2.2 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.9 steals per game.
[30] After briefly playing for AEL Limassol in Cyprus, Hawkins spent the 2010–11 season back in Poland, this time with PBG Poznań where he posted averages of 6.8 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists over 25 games.