Photo by Kate Holstein

Men’s basketball junior forward Sam Hauser said he is approximately at the “halfway mark” of his recovery from left hip surgery.

“(The hip) is doing really well,” Sam Hauser said. “I’m a couple weeks ahead of schedule, and it’s feeling really good.”

Hauser injured his hip last August and played through the injury for all of the 2017-‘18 season. Despite the injury, he averaged 14.1 points and a team-high 5.7 rebounds per game.

“It was tough, but at the end of the day, you just have to put it past yourself and just play the game,” Sam Hauser said following Marquette’s NIT loss to Penn State March 20. “I go out every night and just do whatever it takes to win.”

Hauser said he is on track to return to his teammates by September, allowing him to fully participate once practices begin.

“There’s a month-and-a-half or two months left, and then I’m shooting for like mid-September, late-September to be 100 percent,” Sam Hauser said. “I should be good to go for the first day of practice.”

Head coach Steve Wojciechowski said Hauser is now able to run on a treadmill.

“All signs are thumbs up,” Wojciechowski said at the The Basketball Tournament BIG EAST pod. “But we’ll be very conservative with him.”

The injury has forced Hauser to focus on being a vocal leader from the sidelines this summer, an attribute Wojciechowski said he hopes Hauser develops further in the next two years.

“Even though Sam’s not been able to participate in workouts, he’s been very vocal and being a leader,” Wojciechowski said. “That wasn’t necessarily in Sam’s nature early in his career, but something we’re going to need from him moving forward.”

It also gave Hauser a chance to mentor younger brother and freshman forward Joey Hauser. The younger Hauser arrived on campus in January but was not cleared to practice until June because of an ankle injury from playing football.

“For Joey, it’s great to have Sam here,” Wojciechowski said. “Sam is one of those guys that’s just a ‘steady Eddie.’”

“I know he always has my back, and I always have his back,” Joey Hauser said. “Being on campus with him is really just awesome.”

Although Joey has been fully cleared, it has taken some time to find his rhythm again. Related ankle and foot injuries limited him to 14 games in his last two years of high school combined.

“Joey is back full go,” Wojciechowski said. “He hadn’t played in a while, so he’s still getting his footing underneath him.”

“It’s definitely a good feeling just being 100 percent full go,” Joey Hauser said. “Every day, I can go and get into the gym and get shots up if I want to.”

While Joey Hauser enjoys finally being healthy, his brother is missing more than just basketball in his recovery process. Sam Hauser can’t fully play his other sport from high school — golf.

“I’m allowed to go from 100 yards in, but that’s like a half swing,” Sam Hauser laughed. “I can’t full swing, which sucks because it’s a really nice summer, but I hope next month I might be able to finally swing, so we’ll see.”