JOEY HAUSER COMMITS TO MARQUETTE

Either head coach Steve Wojciechowski or one of his staff members attended every one of top recruiting target and Stevens Point, Wisconsin, native Joey Hauser’s AAU games this month. It paid off.

Joey announced Sunday he was verbally committing to Marquette, where he will play with his brother, Sam. As a consensus top 50 recruit, Joey was highly sought after by several other top programs, most notably Wisconsin and Michigan State. He is six-foot-eight and will likely continue on as a power forward in college.

Assuming both Joey and fellow 2018 recruit Brendan Bailey sign letters of intent, this will completely fill Marquette’s allotment of scholarships for that freshman class. The Golden Eagles still have an open scholarship for this year’s team and two for 2019’s class.

To get more inside information about Joey Hauser’s commitment, including what Wojo did that left an impression on Joey, read our full story about it.

GOLDEN EAGLES ALUMNI LOSE IN THE BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

Hauser’s commitment helped Marquette fans forget about what happened Sunday afternoon: the Golden Eagles Alumni were trounced in The Basketball Tournament’s round of eight by Scarlet and Gray, the Ohio State alumni team, 81-56.

The Alumni only trailed by five at the end of the first half despite surrendering a 10-2 run right before intermission. Scarlet and Gray made only a third of their opening half shots while the Alumni shot just below 30 percent in the same timeframe.

Ohio State dialed up the intensity in the second half, though, while the Alumni wilted away. Scarlet and Gray punctuated an 18-7 run with a huge slam from guard Dave Lighty, who led his team with 22 points. After that run, the Alumni never came close to seeing the lead again.

Darius Johnson-Odom led Marquette with 15 points on 6-of-15 shooting. Read our game story for more information about what happened and whether the team will be coming back next year.

TRENT LOCKETT’S ABSENCE FINALLY EXPLAINED

It was the great mystery of the Golden Eagles Alumni team both last year and this year: what happened to Trent Lockett?

The key cog in Marquette’s 2012-2013 run in the NCAA Tournament never showed up to The Basketball Tournament despite being listed on the roster both years. Alumni general manager Dan Fitzgerald cleared up the confusion yesterday, revealing Lockett dropped out at the last minute this year and was injured last year.

Lockett played on the Atlanta Hawks summer league team during The Basketball Tournament’s opening weekend, so it’s unlikely he could have made the first two games even if he hadn’t dropped out. Russian basketball club UNICS signed Lockett to a one-year contract earlier this month.

QUICK SHOTS

• Both the men’s cross country team and the men’s golf team earned academic awards this week. Cross country’s cumulative GPA of 3.499 earned the team a BIG EAST Academic Excellence Award. Cross country was Marquette’s only representative among 21 BIG EAST programs that won this award. Golf, meanwhile, earned a cumulative GPA over 3.0 for the sixth straight year.
• Class of 2018 power forward and longtime Marquette recruiting target Jarvis Thomas committed to the University of Minnesota. Wojo offered Thomas a scholarship in October and was watching him play as recently as July 12. This happened several days before Hauser committed.
• PrepVolleyball named incoming Marquette freshmen Elizabeth Orf and Martha Konovodoff to its Club All-American list. Orf is a middle blocker that was ranked as the No. 39 recruit in the country by PrepVolleyball. Konovodoff is a defensive specialist that will likely see playing time along the back line this year.