MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – On Nov. 16, 2016, a tall, lanky forward from Southwest Mississippi Community College signed a letter of intent to continue his basketball career at Middle Tennessee.
James Hawthorne was one of five early signees in Kermit Davis' last recruiting class at MT, with graduate transfer Nick King to join later.
At the time, Hawthorne, standing 6-foot-7 and weighing 200 pounds right after breakfast, was a bit quiet. If you could get him to open up a little, though, you could really see his personality. You could see "Tookie" come out.