Portage County Gazette

By John Kemmeter

After winning a pair of WIAA Division 1 State Titles together for the Stevens Point Area Senior High School (SPASH) boys basketball team, brothers Sam and Joey Hauser are teaming up again to help lead the nationally-ranked Marquette University men’s basketball team this season.

A 6-8 junior guard/forward, Sam is in his third season in the starting lineup for the Golden Eagles, where he has been joined by his younger brother, 6-9 redshirt freshman forward Joey.

The brothers combined to score 28 points in a 74-69 win in overtime against the then-12th-ranked University of Wisconsin at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee Saturday, Dec. 8, to help the Golden Eagles improve to 8-2 and jump into the AP Top 25 at No. 21 this week.

“In my opinion, Sam is one of the most underappreciated players in the United States,” said Marquette men’s basketball head coach Steve Wojciechowski after the win over Wisconsin. “He’s about winning, he’s about winning, and he’s about winning. And he’s an absolute joy to coach.

“His younger brother is really starting to find his footing, which is great,” he said. “He made some huge plays for us in tonight’s game, and we’re going to need him to continue to evolve into a consistently, really good player, which he certainly has the capability of doing.”

Sam Hauser celebrates in the closing seconds of the Marquette men’s basketball team’s 74-69 win in overtime against 12th-ranked Wisconsin at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee Saturday, Dec. 8. (Marquette University Athletics- Isaiah Gencuski photo)

At SPASH, Sam was a Unanimous All-State selection by the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches (WBCA) as a junior during Joey’s freshman year, when they started alongside each other on the Panthers’ 2015 WIAA Division 1 State Championship team.

The brothers were both WBCA All-State selections the following year, when SPASH went 28-0 to win its second consecutive State Title, as Sam was named Mr. Basketball along with his SPASH teammate and current University of Wisconsin guard Trevor Anderson.

While Joey earned All-State honors and led the Panthers to their third consecutive State Title in 2017, Sam broke into the starting lineup for Marquette as a freshman and helped the Golden Eagles reach the NCAA Tournament, and then averaged 14.1 points per game as a sophomore for the Golden Eagles last year when he finished third in NCAA Division 1 in three-point percentage (48.7 percent), had the 11th best Offensive Rating in the country by KenPom.com, and received Marquette’s Most Valuable Player Award.

Meanwhile, Joey suffered a season-ending ankle injury after the first game of his senior season at SPASH last year, then graduated early and spent the spring semester at Marquette rehabbing his injury, before he was able to join his brother on the court this fall for a Golden Eagles team that returned a veteran core from last year’s team that finished 21-14.

“We’re playing well,” said Sam, who was named to the 2019 Julius Erving Award watch list for the best small forward in college basketball. “I don’t think we’ve hit our potential yet, but we’ve had a lot of guys step up in big-time situations.

“We’re still growing and we’re still getting better, so it’s really exciting,” he said.

Joey came off the bench in the first three games of the season before he broke into the starting lineup in a 74-55 win over Presbyterian Nov. 17, after he scored a career-high 18 points off the bench in a 96-73 loss to 25th-ranked Indiana, while Marquette followed with a 77-68 loss to currently top-ranked Kansas at the NIT Season Tip-Off.

The Golden Eagles bounced back with a 77-74 overtime win over Louisville to start a four-game win streak, which also included an 83-71 victory at home over then-12th-ranked Kansas State Saturday, Dec. 1, and a 76-69 win over UTEP Tuesday, Dec. 4.

That led into Marquette’s game against Wisconsin last Saturday, where Sam and Joey were set to face their longtime friend and former SPASH teammate Trevor Anderson for the first time.

However, Anderson suffered a season-ending knee injury a week earlier during the Badgers’ 76-66 win at then-14th-ranked Iowa Nov. 30, which left him to watch the Marquette game from the bench.

“We talk at least once a week probably, and obviously hearing that news was really hard for him, and for me to hear, because he’s just starting to find his groove with the team and he was starting to play better,” said Sam. “Something like that is unexpected and it sucks for him, but he’s going to come back better than ever.”

“It’s a really unfortunate situation, that’s one of our best friends,” said Joey. “But definitely it was cool to see him; we got a couple of good laughs before the game.

“But hopefully next year he’ll be suiting up and playing,” he said.

In high school, Sam was ranked 74th on the list of top recruits in the nation by Scout.com, but never was offered a scholarship by Wisconsin before he committed to Marquette, while Joey was ranked 32nd in the nation in his class by 247Sports.com and turned down a scholarship offer from Wisconsin to join his brother at Marquette.

In front of a sold-out crowd at Fiserv Forum, Sam and Joey got to take the court together against Wisconsin for the first time Saturday afternoon, where Sam had eight points in the first half and Joey added five, as the Golden Eagles went into halftime down 33-32.

Joey Hauser launches a three-pointer during the Marquette men’s basketball team’s 74-69 win over Wisconsin at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee Saturday, Dec. 8. (Marquette University Athletics- Isaiah Gencuski photo)

The game remained tight throughout the second half, as Joey hit a three-pointer to give Marquette a 59-57 lead with 3:25 to play, and Sam hit a free throw with 1:49 remaining to tie the game at 61-61 and eventually send it to overtime.

There, Joey scored the opening basket on a reverse layup and added a pair of free throws a minute later to increase the Golden Eagles’ lead to 67-63.

Marquette went on to close out a 74-69 win at the free-throw line in the closing seconds, as Sam raised both arms in the air at the final buzzer on his way to salute the student section, with Joey just off to his side, before they joined the rest of the team for a celebration at halfcourt.

“It’s a great feeling,” said Sam. “A Top 15 win, and we had an unbelievable atmosphere at home, and we thank our fans so much for coming out and supporting us.

“And obviously these wins help build our resume, and we’ve just got to protect our homecourt,” he said. “We’ve been doing that this year, and we’ve got to continue to do that.”

“All respect to Wisconsin, but when my brother committed, I turned into a huge Marquette fan,” said Joey. “Coming to Marquette, I had a lot of backlash from Wisconsin fans, so this was just a really big win for our team; and for me personally.

“It’s just one of those wins that I’ll remember for a really long time,” he said. “And I’m looking forward to playing again next year against them.”

Sam Hauser motions toward the Marquette crowd after the Golden Eagles’ 74-69 overtime victory against Wisconsin in Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee Saturday, Dec. 8. (Marquette University Athletics – Isaiah Gencuski photo)

Sam finished with 13 points and a career-high 14 rebounds to go along with four assists and no turnovers in the win, while Joey scored 15 points and was named the BIG EAST Freshman of the Week Monday, Dec. 10, after he scored a total of 30 points and shot 10-of-13 from the field and 4-of-6 from three point range in the wins over UTEP and Wisconsin.

So far this season, Sam is second on Marquette in scoring (14.1 points per game), three-point percentage (38.5 percent) and free-throw percentage (87 percent), while he leads the team with 7.0 rebounds per game.

Joey leads the team in three-point percentage (39.3 percent) and is second in rebounding (5.3 per game), while he ranks third in scoring (10.3 points per game) and free-throw percentage (83.3 percent).

“We’re definitely just taking it game-by-game, and beating some really good teams,” said Joey. “We’re just catching our groove right now and getting some really good wins, and hopefully we just keep it going.”

Marquette is set to play at home against North Dakota at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 18, and will host another ranked team when it takes on 14th-ranked Buffalo (9-0) at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 21.

The BIG EAST season is set to begin at St. John’s New Year’s Day, as Sam and Joey will look to help the Golden Eagles challenge for the BIG EAST Title and a trip to the NCAA Tournament this season, while they’ve enjoyed being able to play together in college.

“It’s just a dream come true,” said Joey. “We never really planned on this, obviously we played high school basketball together, but we never had any plans really of playing college basketball together, until probably my senior year.

“So this is just a really cool moment for me and him,” he said.

“Playing with Joey is awesome,” said Sam. “I wouldn’t trade it for anything else.

“Playing in high school together for two years was great, and college is just a whole different experience,” he said. “So sharing a moment like that with him, that’s something we’re going to remember forever, and we’ll really cherish those types of things.”