Sam Hauser had to wait an excruciating 615 days between college basketball games. The 6’8 forward played his final game for Marquette — an 83-64 loss to Ja Morant and Murray State in the NCAA tournament — on March 21, 2019. After sitting out the mandatory year for transfers, he debuted for No. 4 Virginia in yesterday’s 89-54 win over Towson.
To say the expectations were high around Hauser would be severely underselling it. The Cavaliers struggled to score last season after the departures of Kyle Guy, Ty Jerome, and De’Andre Hunter from the Virginia squad that won the national championship in 2019.