Sunday Funday: Andrew Rowsey & Sam Hauser Join Marquette Basketball

It was a busy Sunday at the McGuire Center.  Not only did the College of Arts & Science hand out diplomas in the arena, but Marquette basketball coach Steve Wojciechowski took care of two big roster moves as well.

The first item addressed the current state of the MU roster.  Andrew Rowsey, a sophomore at UNC-Asheville, announced that he is transferring to Marquette.  Rowsey is a traditional transfer, and will have to sit out the 2015-16 season before playing his final two years of eligibility.

Rowsey was an immediate star for UNC-Asheville, starting every one of the Bulldogs' 63 games while he was there.  He averaged 20.3 points per game his first season, which was tops on the team and in the Big South.  He was named Big South Freshman of the Year and included on the all-Big South First Team.  For an encore, Rowsey averaged 19.2 points per game, again leading UNCA, but only finishing 3rd in the Big South behind Saah Nimley and John Brown.

The 5'10" Virginia native is a shooter of the highest magnitude, making 39% of his 829 three point attempts in two seasons as a Bulldog.  He took nearly 58% of his shot attempts behind the arc, and took at least 10 three-pointers in 23 different games.  He's not just a specialist, though, as he ranked in the top 500 in the country in fouls drawn his freshman year and boosted that up to top 300 for his sophomore campaign.  He's bordering on Steve Novak-esque from the charity stripe, draining 88% of his freebies.

Last thing on Rowsey: He scored 1,244 points in two seasons at UNC-Asheville, becoming the first sophomore to ever break the 1,000 point barrier in program history.  That makes Rowsey the most prolific collegiate scorer that's currently on the Marquette roster, as Duane Wilson's 380 points are tops amongst the four returning players.  In fact, I'll guarantee that when the 2016-17 season starts and Rowsey becomes eligible to play for MU, he'll *still* be the top scorer on the team.  It would take Duane Wilson beating Dwyane Wade's single season scoring mark of 710 points by ONE HUNDRED FIFTY-FIVE points for Wilson to surpass Rowsey, and just forget about Henry Ellenson having a chance at it, y'know?

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The other news of the day came a few hours later.  Sam Hauser became the first recruit of the class of 2016 when he gave his verbal commitment to Steve Wojciechowski.  Hauser was on a visit to Marquette over graduation weekend after recently visiting Virginia.

Hauser is a 6'6", 190 lb. forward from Stevens Point, Wisconsin.  He averaged 18 points, 7.7 rebounds, 3.4 assists, and 2.7 blocks per game in 2014-15 for Stevens Point Area Senior High, as they went 27-1 and won the Wisconsin Division 1 state title.  The item to note in his production is his three-point shooting, as Hauser drained just barely short of half (49.7%) of his long range attempts.

247 Sports Composite rankings mark Hauser as a three star prospect, ranked #150 in the country.  247's own internal rankings have Hauser as a four star recruit and rank him 95th in the country.  Rivals grades him as a three star prospect, but does not provide a ranking, while ESPN and Scout don't have anything for a grade or a ranking at this point.  ESPN only has the top 60 prospects for 2016 ranked right now, so we'll have to keep our eyes open for updated rankings as the summer progresses.

We'll wrap up with a check of Marquette's current scholarship situation.  Here's how things look heading into the 2015-16 season:

Remember, Marquette has no seniors for next season.  As things stand right now, Marquette has two open scholarships for the upcoming season, but one of them will be occupied by Hauser for the following season.  Wojo does have space to take on a transfer either during the summer or at the end of the fall semester, but if he does, then Hauser might end up as the only freshman in the class of 2016.  Of course, we have no idea what Henry Ellenson's plans actually are at this point, or how they might change after one season in college, so I'm sure that Wojo will continue to recruit high schoolers for 2016 for a while.