Marquette finished their trip to Maui with a 2-1 record. The only two losses for the Golden Eagles this season have come against top 25 teams – Purdue and Wichita State. Now, Marquette will need to be some top-tier teams if they hope to return to the NCAA Tournament, but there’s still a ton of time for that to happen. Golden Eagles should come home from Maui with their heads held high with many things to look forward to the rest of the season.

1. Sam Hauser is the player that makes this team go – We talked about it earlier this week about how Sam Hauser is special, and that needs to be reinforced again. Hauser might not get the headlines like Markus Howard or Andrew ‘The Thing’ Rowsey will get by the media, yet Hauser is a stud on both sides of the ball. We can wonder what the Shockers game is like if Hauser didn’t get squeezed by a few bullshit calls. If Marquette is better than the experts predicted them to be, Hauser will be the reason.

2. Defense still needs some work, but there are signs of life – Marquette’s lack of defense was a major issue last season, and it’s not that much better than last season, yet there are some encouraging signs. The young bench of Greg Elliott, Sacar Amin and Theo John really help Marquette on the defense. They add an element that last year’s team was missing without question. Can Steve Wojciechowski figure out a way to work his bench in with his scorers? I’m guessing he will try his best especially during the cupcakes.

3. Love what I saw from Sacar Amin – What a difference a year makes for Sacar Amin. He redshirted last season, and this year, he’s proving to be a vital part of the bench for Marquette. On Wednesday, Amin played most of the second half with four fouls staying with talented LSU freshman Tremont Waters. He finished with 12 points and tough defense to go with it. Amin is going to keep seeing big minutes if he shows to be a perimeter stopper for Marquette. He can score a little bit as well which he showed against the Tigers as well.

4. Andrew Rowsey is off to a hot start – Through five games, Andrew Rowsey is averaging 24.8 points per game. That’s damn impressive from the senior. Rowsey is proving to be quite the duo with Howard, and it’s going to be hard to stop Marquette when both guys are cooking. What we’ve seen a lot of is one guy gets hot for a half then the other one provides the noise in the second. You’d like to see them both in sync, but I think that’s going to come with time.

5. Matt Heldt is a useful big men – I’m a fan of Matt Heldt getting more touches in the paint. Heldt scored 12 points, and Marquette found him a few times for easy buckets inside. As more teams play tight against the three, the paint will be opened for Heldt and others. While Harry Froling is probably the more talented player, Heldt should keep his starting spot unless things fall apart for him in December.

Next up – Marquette heads home for three games next week featuring Eastern Illinois, Chicago State and Georgia. The Georgia game over the weekend will be a big one for the Golden Eagles.

Charlie.