Michigan State Basketball: Joey Hauser’s return checks off first offseason need

Joey Hauser officially announced his return to Michigan State basketball on Wednesday and this is the first of three offseason needs.

A day after posting “looking for a roommate in East Lansing next year” on Instagram, Joey Hauser officially announced he’d be coming back for another year with Michigan State basketball.

This is great news for a team that desperately needed some after losing Gabe Brown and Marcus Bingham Jr. to the NBA draft as well as Max Christie to the process and Julius Marble to the transfer portal.

Michigan State needed a pick-me-up and this was just that.

Hauser listed “unfinished business” as a reason for his return and it had been trending this way for weeks.

It feels good to have the first of a few offseason wish list items checked off.

Now that the Hauser waiting game is over, the coaching staff can now turn its full attention to the portal where the next offseason wish list item has to be adding a center and potentially a wing transfer. The last wish list item would be the return of Christie.

For now, though, we’ll settle for this news.

Hauser had an up-and-down 2021-22 season, starting very slow and then turning things on late. He struggled with confidence early in the year but finally figured it out in the final couple of months and had his best game of the season to carry the Spartans over Davidson in the NCAA Tournament with 27 points and eight rebounds in 34 minutes.

If Michigan State can get solid shooting out of him along with decent rebounding from the four or the wing, it will be in good shape next year when it comes to veteran leadership.

Hauser looks poised to take that next step for the Spartans.