He is currently an assistant men's basketball coach for Southern Illinois University Carbondale, a position he has held since 2024.

[1] During this time he worked as an assistant at UCLA basketball camps, serving as chauffeur for legendary Bruins coach John Wooden.

[2][3] Hawkins maintained the UCLA connection during his coaching career, often having Wooden speak to his teams at Quincy and Western Michigan.

He was promoted to head coach at Quincy in 1992 and served there for 9 seasons until joining the staff of Robert McCullum at Western Michigan in the spring of 2000.

That squad eventually fell to Vanderbilt in the opening round of the 2004 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament.

In 2005 Hawkins was a finalist for the head coaching job at DePaul University that eventually went to Jerry Wainwright.

[8] On Wednesday, March 11, 2020, Western Michigan announced Hawkins would not return, ending his 17-year run as head coach.

[9] On March 9, 2022, Hawkins was hired as head coach of the Quincy Hawks men's basketball team.