Outlook: Woof, what a gut-wrenching spring and summer for Milwaukee basketball fans (sorry Jim). We all remember when the Bucks got blindsided by the Toronto Raptors in the NBA Conference Finals after holding a commanding 2-0 series lead, but I’m here to remind you that it was Fiserv Forum’s collegiate tenant who took it on the chin first. Murray State made a mockery of Marquette’s [much improved] defense in the opening round of the NCAA tournament last March, and Ja Morant and the Racers sent the Eagles home packing prematurely.

Just when Marquette fans had washed away the bitterness from that 83-64 beatdown, the Golden Eagles’ golden boys, Sam and Joey Hauser, rocked the college basketball twittersphere when they announced their intent to transfer. Before that bombshell, the Hausers were slated to flank Markus Howard - college basketball’s human flamethrower - in a rerun of last year’s prolific offense, which explains why so many pundits pegged Marquette as a surefire top-10 team in the obligatory ‘Way Too Early Top-25 Rankings’.

That hype was mostly extinguished after the Hauser boys decided to exit stage right, but I’m here to keep that flame flickering. This is a squad I initially labeled as “overrated”, but the Hauser news seems to have caused an overcorrection in the Golden Eagles’ prognosis perception. All of a sudden, I get this weird feeling that Marquette is somehow, dare I say, underrated?

Make no mistake about it. The Hausers were lethal as complementary scorers to / floor spacers for Howard, and were under-appreciated as passers within the flow of the offense. As pointed out by Jordan Sperber in his Hoop Vision 2019 NCAA Tournament Bible, the Hausers’ dual threat ability to catch-and-shoot and attack a hard close out off the dribble made them devastating weapons in pick-n-pops with Howard.

This drive, spin and fade combination by Joey is quite an advanced move for a freshman: