Joey Hauser Has Enrolled At Marquette

Have you ever wondered what kind of news could cause you to be extremely excited about Marquette basketball, but not have any actual changing impact on the team or its recruiting?

Well, I think we figured out the apex of that intersection on Wednesday, as Marquette announced that Class of 2018 signee Joey Hauser has completed his high school coursework and has enrolled at Marquette, effective immediately. Hauser will be redshirting for the 2017-18 season and will not play at all this season while he recovers from ankle surgery that ended his senior season at Stevens Point (WI) Area High School.

In fact, it’s that exact surgery that propelled Hauser, the younger brother of current Golden Eagle Sam Hauser, to begin his collegiate experience with the current semester. Here’s what he told Wisconsin Sports Network’s Mark Miller:

“The main benefit of enrolling early at Marquette is to get myself 100 percent healthy,” Hauser said. “I will get rehab every day on my ankle and be ready to go next season.”

The fact of the matter is that Hauser has to go through the physical rehabilitation process with his ankle one way or another. He may as well do it under the guidance of Brandon Yoder, Marquette’s director of Sports Medicine, and Todd Smith, MU’s director of Sports Performance, as those two are going to be in charge of his strength, conditioning, and treatment going forward anyway. This is a pretty genius move by both the Hauser family and Marquette basketball, as both sides get the best possible treatment for Joey, and the team benefits by having him on campus and getting a jumpstart on both integrating with the team as well as with his academics.

It’s a bit of luck as well. Obviously the key component here was Hauser meeting Wisconsin’s state requirements to be considered a high school graduate. At the time of the surgery in December, it seemed like that would be too late for Hauser to be able to arrange to have his academics organized properly to be done with high school. Obviously that wasn’t the case, as the completion of his fall semester was enough to make sure he was set to go.

Hauser will occupy Marquette’s open scholarship, moving them to a full slate of 13 athletes receiving benefits during this school year. While Haanif Cheatham is no longer with the team, he still counts as a scholarship “use” for the year. Hauser has been assigned jersey #22, but he will not wear it this season. He will, however, be a full member of the team immediately, including being able to travel to road games. Hauser is eligible to play, which is the difference between his travel status and that of Nebraska transfer Ed Morrow.

With high school wrapped up already for Hauser, Marquette can expect to have both of their incoming freshmen for next season on campus for the first summer school session. Brendan Bailey, a Class of 2016 signee, will finish his two year Mormon mission this spring and the plan is for him to be on campus in May.