The 2018-19 college basketball season is right around the corner, so let’s get into the Marquette Golden Eagles basketball roster and take a look at what to expect from each player this season. We’ll be going through the players one by one: First MU’s lone true freshman, then the lone graduate transfer, followed by the three players who redshirted last season for one reason or another, and then wrapping up with the returning players, going in order of average minutes played per game last season from lowest to highest.

We’re going to organize our thoughts about the upcoming season as it relates to each player into categories:

• Reasonable Expectations
• Why You Should Get Excited
• Potential Pitfalls

With that out of the way, we turn our attention to the early enrollee for this year’s freshman class......

Joey Hauser

Redshirt Freshmen - #22 - 6’9” - 230 pounds - Stevens Point, Wisconsin

Joey Hauser’s story is unique because he arrived at Marquette in January after finishing up at Stevens Point Area High School a semester early. He did this knowing that he wanted to enroll at Marquette early to get ahead in classes but mostly to get college-level treatment on an ankle injury that kept him out most of his senior season at Stevens Point. He had surgery on it December 12 of last year to repair cartilage in the bone and has made a full recovery since. Despite the injury, he was still ranked 52nd in his recruiting class by 247 Sports and the 10th best power forward in the country. He averaged 23.6 points, 11.5 rebounds, and 5.1 assists his junior year at SPASH helping them win their third state championship.

Now I’ve seen Joey around campus and he looks a lot bigger than the 6’9” 230 he’s listed at. Maybe not as scary as Theo John or Big Red Ed but still, his size will be a massive help defensively. It will be interesting to see how his minutes shape out throughout the season as there’s six other forwards listed on the roster. One of them is freshmen Tommy Gardiner who's unlikely to get any playing time as a walk on. Theo John and Ed Morrow are also listed as Forwards but will likely play the 5 in rotation with Neenah, Wisconsin native Matt “The Milkman” Heldt. That leaves Jamal Cain, Ike Eke, and Brendan Bailey as the remaining true forwards to that will compete for minutes with Joey. While Eke will be a lock at the 4, Cain, Bailey, and Joey can fluidly play the 3 or 4 with their combination of length and versatility. Sam Hauser and Sacar Anim can also play as guards or forwards as well. The lineup combo will really depend on what Wojo wants to get out of his offense.

Reasonable Expectations

I expect Joey to be a reliable first guy off the bench in his first season at Marquette. Ideally he’ll average double digit points. But just having him as an efficient scorer and an above average defender will be enough to fit in well. He’ll be in rotation with Anim, Bailey, Cain, and big bro Sam (#MOARHAUSER) so it will be interesting how Wojo manages his playing time especially early in the season. Just looking at his size combined with his length and athleticism he could easily be an 8/5/5 guy playing 10-15 minutes a game. It also doesn’t hurt that he’ll be playing alongside his brother which they’ve been doing since they were in grade school. I think Joey learned a lot from sitting out a semester and will have an immediate impact on this team.

Reasons To Get Excited

Word on the street is he’s better than Sam. I repeat: better than Marquette’s most lethal offensive weapon that shot 49% from three-point land with an overall field goal percentage of 50%. Oh and averaged nearly six rebounds and three assists per game. Pretty f*ckin’ good. Mind you, I don’t think Joey is better than Sam right now as a collegiate player because that would be blasphemous and extremely overzealous of me to say. But if the “experts” are saying that now, it means that his potential is like a pillowcase of Halloween candy: very large and very sweet. He is also the ultimate athlete having size, length, and versatility which gives Wojo options as to where, how, and when to use him. Due to the overload of talent at the forward position we may not see Joey as a starter right away, but he will definitely emerge as a top offensive weapon in his second and third year. I’m also excited to hear how many times the announcers mix up the two Hausers. Last year we had many difficulties with Sam, Markus, and Andrew’s last names and heard fun combinations like Howsey and Rauser. We’ll see if this trend increases with the addition of Hauser numero dos.

Potential Pitfalls

I guess he hasn't played competitive basketball for a while due to his injury. But I don’t really see that being an issue. It might just take him a couple games to get in the swing of things. Otherwise, he may not get much playing time because of the wealth at the forward position that I already talked about. If Bailey or Eke have hot starts then Joey may not get significant playing time right away. Who knows how deep of a lineup Wojo will enforce this season. But if he only wants an 8 or 9 man rotation Joey may be at the end of it depending on how the early season goes for him. Realistically, he’ll be one of the first guys off the bench and will be productive on both sides of the ball. I don’t seriously see any pitfalls with Joey because even if he doesn’t see significant playing time right away, that means that there are three or four other guys playing better than him. That would make this Marquette team scary as hell. If this happens Joey can take more time to develop into a more dangerous threat later this season.