EAST LANSING — Never mind that Joey Hauser had 25 points and 25 rebounds in his first two games in a Michigan State uniform.
The junior transfer from Marquette was frustrated he missed all six of his 3-point attempts in wins over Eastern Michigan and Notre Dame. A sense of relief came when he hit two in a win Wednesday at Duke.
He made up for those first six errant shots Sunday, making six from behind the arc en route to a career high 24 points and 10 rebounds. He added four assists to lift the heavy-legged 12th-ranked Spartans to a 79-61 win over Western Michigan at Breslin Center.
“I gotta tell you,” MSU coach Tom Izzo said, “Joey had a hell of a day”
Just in time, too. Next up is a much-anticipated reunion with his brother. As foes.
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The national spotlight Wednesday night will be on MSU’s trip to No. 4 Virginia for the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. Tipoff is 9:15 p.m. Wednesday in Charlottesville, Virginia (ESPN).
It will pit Hauser against his older brother, Sam, a senior with the Cavaliers (3-1). The two left Marquette in the spring of 2019, each choosing schools in that year’s Final Four.
“I’m extremely excited about it,” said Hauser, who posted his third double-double this season. “I knew we had to get past this game …, so I wasn’t looking forward to the Virginia game yet. But now we’ll start to study them and prep for them.
“I don’t want to make it about me and my brother, because we’re playing Virginia. We’re not going down there to play the Joey Houser-Sam Houser game, it’s Virginia versus Michigan State. And that’s what I want it to be about.”
Hauser’s previous highs were 21 points and five 3-pointers for the Golden Eagles against Xavier on Jan. 26, 2019. The forward registered double-doubles against Notre Dame and Duke earlier this season.
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On Sunday, the Spartans (5-0) couldn’t pull away until Hauser drained four of his 3s —one of them from well behind the arc — during a 21-6 run midway through the second half.
“I just shot in rhythm. When you shoot in rhythm, you don’t really know how deep you are,” said Hauser, who had 15 points and seven rebounds after halftime. “There’s a couple where I need to get closer to the line, and coach is always talking to me about getting closer to the line. I tried to back up too far, but I didn’t know how deep I was on that one.”
Izzo raved all last season, while Hauser sat out due to the NCAA’s denial of his appeal for immediate eligibility, about how good a shooter the rare transfer into his program is.
“He shot it well. Am I surprised? No, he’s, he’s that kind of shooter,” Izzo said. “He hasn’t shot it well this year. … We had a couple meetings just to say, ‘Hey, loosen up.’ He’s an intense kid that sometimes lets those things bother him, like all shooters do.”
That helped after the Spartans took some questionable shots in the middle of their third game in six days and their fifth game in nine days.
“Nothing that an ice bath won’t fix,” said junior Aaron Henry, who finished with 12 points on 5-for-13 shooting, though his shot was short much of the night and he missed all four of his 3-point attempts. “But outside of that, guys are gonna get tired. It’s where winners and when real champions stand up and just decide that it’s a mental thing and we’re going to fight through it, we’re going to compete, whether we’re tired or not. We don’t have time to be tired in these type of moments.”
Henry, a captain, was late for a film session after the Spartans’ 83-76 win over Detroit Mercy on Friday. That earned him a seat on the bench to open the game against WMU. The 6-6 swingman started 29 of 30 games last year and 22 times as a freshman on the 2018-19 Spartans’ Final Four team.
“Around here, it’s different than the world. We hold people accountable,” he said. “I mean, that’s something that (Izzo) has been doing since I’ve been here. I didn’t expect anything less. He told me I wasn’t starting. It wasn’t a big deal at all.”
Henry started the second half, with Gabe Brown going to the bench in his second straight start. He added five assists and four rebounds. And after testing the NBA draft this summer, Henry said it was another lesson learned for him in his maturation process.
“I love the way Aaron handled it,” Izzo said. “He walked in there, and I said, ‘Aaron, sorry, you can’t be in the meeting now, you’re late.’ And he waited for me, came into my office — ‘I already know. You’re right.’”
Having Henry coming off the bench helped give MSU a 26-4 scoring edge from its reserves as MSU shot 50.8% overall and made 10 of 26 3-pointers. The Spartans also had 28 assists on 32 makes, following two games in which the ball movement wasn’t as good.
Senior Joshua Langford (knee) returned after a one-game absence, and he finished with six points and five assists. Sophomore Rocket Watts added 10 points on 4-for-9 shooting and tied a career high with six assists.
Izzo had hefty praise for Watts, who admitted afterward his legs were fatigued from the workload the past week-plus.
“I thought Rocket Watts played outstanding,” Izzo said. “He had seven shots in the first half, which led us, and I thought he was so unselfish with the ball. He did a hell of a job to get Hauser involved.”
B. Artis White, the son of former MSU basketball player Benny White, had 19 points, six rebounds and six assists for WMU (0-2), and Titus Wright added 16 points and 10 boards. MSU held the Broncos to just 39% shooting, though they made 5 of 13 3-point attempts.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State basketball: Tom Izzo breaks down ‘a hell of a day’
