Marquette Basketball: Three keys for game against Creighton

Sam Hauser… shoot!

After missing his first jumper on Monday night against the Hoyas, Sam Hauser caught fire. He made his next five shots, including all three from beyond the arc. With 12:07 left in the half, Hauser had 13 points on 5-6 shooting from the field and Marquette led by seven.

But then, he disappeared. Hauser did not attempt another shot for almost nine minutes, when he got fouled with Marquette down nine. He did not log another official shot until another minute later. Hauser found his groove in the second half, but even then he was rather conservative with his attempts. The sophomore finished with 28 points on 10-14 shooting and 7-8 from three.

Clamoring for more Hauser on offense is not new. Part of the issue is his teammates. Andrew Rowsey and Markus Howard are both electric scorers, so they deserve a good chunk of shots. But Hauser is no scrub on that end of the floor either. In fact, Hauser is second in the nation in three-point shooting (52.1 percent) among players with at least 2.5 three-point attempts per game and fifth in offensive rating.

After an excellent freshman season spent mostly as a spot-up shooter, Hauser is shooting with more efficiency on even more attempts this year, and has added an effective, albeit herky-jerky, post game. Yes, he is technically the third option, but he is really just another “first option.” And you can guarantee if Rowsey or Howard started the game 5-6 from the field, they would certainly test the laws of the heat check.

The Golden Eagles are 11-2 when Hauser tops his season average of 15 points per game. He doesn’t need to test Kobe Bryant’s shot totals, but a slight uptick would benefit the team, even if his efficiency drops slightly.