Michigan State's Joey Hauser reaches career milestone vs. Brown

East Lansing, Mich. – Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo has described this year’s team as one of the closest he’s had in 28 years on the job. That chemistry and affection was on full display as a milestone was reached at the Breslin Center Saturday night. 

Forward Joey Hauser (22 points) eclipsed the 1,000-career point mark in the Spartans’ 68-50 home win over Brown (6-5). The Izzone erupted after Hauser sank a free-throw line jumper to give Michigan State (7-4) a 48-31 lead with 10:59 to play, but nobody – not even Hauser – knew of the gravity behind that shot when it first went in. 

“I had no clue,” Hauser said. “I didn’t know where I was at [on the career-points list], so it definitely caught me by surprise.”

When the video board finally announced the accomplishment during a media timeout, the Breslin Center filled with chants of Hauser’s name as his teammates congratulated him in the huddle. 

“I probably couldn’t have made it up in my head,” Hauser said. “A whole 10,000 people, whatever it is, chanting ‘Joey.’ It was a really cool moment, but definitely even more special having my teammates kind of surround me and just congratulating me.”

When Hauser scored barrier-breaking points on that curl play just a few possessions earlier, all he knew was that his team was counting on him. Brown went on a quick 5-0 run before that basket, capped by a layup from Michigan State assistant coach Doug Wojcik’s son, Paxson. 

Needing to reaffirm Michigan State’s dominant hold on the game, Hauser drew up a play. 

“I told coach, ‘Let’s go to this play,’” Hauser said. “I think I had a couple of post moves there, had a three that kind of rattled home after I airballed one, so I kind of was getting in the flow here. So I was like, ‘Let’s draw one for me to come off that screen.’ I know Mady’s going to set a good pick. I didn’t know it was going to be my 1,000th point. But it’s kind of things like that where you have to call your own number.”

Two seasons ago, that Joey Hauser – the one to call a play for himself when his team needed a bucket – didn’t exist. After a rocky start to his Michigan State career, Hauser is feeling as confident as ever on the basketball court. 

“It’s definitely the most comfortable I’ve felt,” Hauser said of his role on this year’s team. “I think a part of that is I worked really hard this offseason and I wanted this year to go really well. I wanted to show kind of what I’m made of and get back to feeling free and just playing my game.”

The 6-foot-9, 220-pound graduate student has been through a lot since transferring in as a highly-touted freshman in 2019. 

Hauser averaged 9.7 points and 5.3 rebounds per game in his one season at Marquette, earning Big East Freshman of the Week five times. He and his older brother, Sam, were two of the most sought-after transfers that offseason. 

The pair split up, with Sam heading to the University of Virginia and Hauser joining Izzo in East Lansing. 

Playing without his brother for the first time in his basketball career, Hauser was forced to sit out his first season at Michigan State due to NCAA transfer rules at the time. Izzo fought hard for Hauser to play, appealing Hauser’s previously-denied eligibility waiver. In the end, Hauser sat during Michigan State’s 2020 Big Ten Championship run and eventual postseason cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

When he finally got on the floor for the Spartans as a redshirt junior, Hauser and Michigan State were playing in front of cardboard cutouts. The pandemic was isolating for everyone, especially the Stevens Point, Wisc., native who transferred away from home and hadn’t played basketball in a year. 

Hauser began that season with a bang, though, reaching double figures in seven of his first eight games. Two December performances, one on Dec. 6 against Western Michigan (24 points) and the other on Christmas against Wisconsin (27 points) were highlights. But after the holidays, as the Big Ten season continued, Hauser’s play became mostly inconsistent.

Hauser matched the number of double-figure games he had in the first month of the season over the last two and a half. 

Hauser’s redshirt senior season began a lot like his redshirt junior one finished. With only three outings of 10 or more points by the time the calendar turned to 2022, Hauser took a lot of heat from those outside the program. 

Izzo, who notably despises Twitter, defended Hauser on multiple occasions as fans gave him a hard time online. Hauser’s confidence was dwindling, and his play reflected that. What fun he had to begin his college basketball career appeared to be fading. 

But things took a turn on Jan. 12, the second time Michigan State played Minnesota that season. The Spartans and the Gophers went down to the wire in East Lansing. With eight seconds left and Michigan State needing a bucket, A.J. Hoggard drove down the lane and dropped a no-look shovel pass right into the hands of Hauser, who scored a double-clutch layup over two Minnesota defenders. 

The Spartans won, 71-69, on Hauser’s buzzer-beater. The Breslin Center crowd erupted and Hauser’s teammates surrounded him under the opposite basket, celebrating their teammate who was desperate for a moment like that one. 

It was a scene reminiscent of Saturday’s against Brown. With the crowd cheering him on and his teammates praising his efforts, Hauser got some of his confidence back against the Gophers that day. And even through the tough times since then, Hauser’s continued efforts were again rewarded on Saturday at the Breslin Center. 

Now, two years later, much of Michigan State’s offense flows through Hauser. The versatile forward has picked up where he left off last season.

After matching a career-high 27 points against Davidson in the first round of the 2022 NCAA Tournament, a leaner, more aggressive Hauser is the Spartans’ second-leading scorer through 11 games this season (13.1 points per game). He’s a more confident version of himself, willing to take shots when his name is called. 

Hauser’s teammates have always been there for him. On Saturday, they remained by his side, celebrating his career accomplishment. 

“He’s playing at a high level,” Hoggard said. “Joey’s somebody that we know we need every night to play like that and he’s taken that on and ran with it. He’s just been very consistent for us. Even when the shot’s not falling from the three, he’s doing everything else in between that you wouldn’t even notice. He’s doing a lot of other things for us. He does a lot of things that fill the stat sheet up and a lot of things that don’t show. We just appreciate Joey and it’s fun being out there playing with him because I feel like Joey’s an automatic assist.”

No one advocated more for Hauser when the forward left his home state than Izzo did. Now, the potential Izzo saw in Hauser is finally being realized. 

“He has the highest basketball IQ [on the team],” Izzo said. “Ironically, my two forwards have probably the highest basketball IQ. Him and Malik [Hall] probably have the highest basketball IQ. So we are playing through Joey more at the end of the break and things like that. We’re trying to play through him, even if we put him in the post, we’re trying to play through him. I think, at times, we still play him too many minutes right now. I’d like to get some rotation in there, which I’m sure we’ll get to do once we get back on track. I mean he still played 32, 33 minutes in this game. 

“I thought he did a great job. He’s rebounding better, he’s just a very smooth player out there. He sees the game before the play comes, and that’s what great people do with high basketball IQs.”

Hauser’s teammates swarmed him after that Minnesota game, and nearly a year later, they’re swarming him again. On a night where all of the work he’s put in over his career reached an emblematic payoff, Hauser wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

“I think we’re just happy to see guys succeed,” Hauser said. “We know that we have a core group of guys that we need to step up every night, but every night a different guy could kind of have that game.”