Joey Hauser and Sam Hauser are going to be a focal point of Marquette’s season early on. They have to be, sadly. Why? Marquette was ready to have their moment in sun after years of rebuilding their program from the ashes that Buzz Williams left it in and be a top 10 team out of the gates led by Markus Howard and the Hauser brothers. That came tumbling down when the Hausers decided to transfer from Marquette. Both will be sitting out this year, and in the 2020-2021 season, Sam will be playing for Virginia and Joey for Michigan State. Brendan F. Quinn of The Athletic wrote an excellent piece on Joey that shined a light on the reason for Marquette were not basketball, they were for his brother.

Quinn’s article outlines how Joey made his decision based on his brother and not himself. It seemed like the younger Hauser had many regrets with how the recruiting process played out for him. Leaving school early, choosing Marquette over Michigan State both seem like mistakes now. That’s perfectly fine. At a young age, we all make mistakes. Hell, I’m 30 years old and I make mistakes all the time too. It is a natural thing you do as an individual in a society. Marquette never was a school for Joey and reading this piece almost brought me at the clarity I needed on the situation.

To me, what this points out is how impressionable the Gen-Z can truly be. It makes sense, right? They’re the first generation to fully grow up in the social media world. They’re the first ones where their Instagram pages can blow up when they’re in fucking high school. It makes sense that Joey felt the need to do what his brother did and couldn’t make a decision for himself. That’s a hard thing to do in today’s society. People make choices all the time that is for someone else or what we think society wants us to do.

I wish the Hauser brothers nothing but the best. Joey is where he wanted to be all along. I almost wish he would have been there last year too, but you cannot control young adults.

Charlie.