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With the season over following Tuesday’s loss to Penn State, Marquette enters the offseason, and that means offseason training and conditioning for the team.
Well, for most of the team.
Two guys are going to be facing a spring and summer full of rehab and physical therapy.
First, we’ll address the issue of Sam Hauser, as it’s the more newsworthy item. Last night, following the game, Ben Steele of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel got confirmation from Hauser that he will soon have hip surgery. The surgery will have a recovery period of four to five months. While we clearly remember Hauser taking a beating in the Big East tournament against DePaul and missing the second half during the road game against Xavier in late January, Hauser told the JS that the injury actually occurred back in August progressively got worse as the season went on.
It’s unclear as to when Hauser was informed that he would require surgery to correct his injury. However, it is clear that Hauser and the coaching staff got repeated go-aheads from the doctors and training staff for the sophomore from Stevens Point to continue playing this season. He finished the season averaging 14.1 points, 2.9 assists, and a team high 5.7 rebounds, all while missing out on his second straight team high in minutes by just 120 seconds to Andrew Rowsey.
The other injury note belongs to Greg Elliott. The freshman from Detroit suffered an injury to his left hand during the Lindenwood exhibition game and played with a taped up hand all season. Head coach Steve Wojciechowski said during the season that Elliott barely avoided requiring surgery on his hand at the time. Now that we’ve reached the end of the season, he will be re-evaluated going forward. John Steppe from the Marquette Wire spoke to Elliott last night after the game and confirmed that surgery may still be an option or perhaps a requirement for him. Either way, that will result in a spring of rehab instead of only focusing on strength and skill training. Elliott averaged 4.5 points, 2.3 minutes, and 1.4 assists in 18.3 minutes per game this season.
Those are the two most notable injury items coming out of the season, and I’m sure more than one other player is dealing with various bumps, bruises, or strains right now. Get well, guys, and we’ll see you at Madness in October.