Made-up mailbag: What does adding transfer Joey Hauser mean for Michigan State basketball?

With transfer Joey Hauser’s addition to Michigan State’s basketball program come questions. So, naturally, it’s time for a made-up mailbag. 

Here we go …

What does adding transfer Joey Hauser mean for Michigan State’s basketball team?  — Gabe

It’s potentially a well-timed, good fit. The Marquette transfer, who announced Tuesday that he’s coming to Michigan State, will sit out next season. Hauser is a 6-foot-9, 230-pound stretch-forward who made more than 42 percent of his 3-point shots during his lone season at Marquette, averaging 9.7 points and 5.3 rebounds per game.

He’d be an ideal fit offensively next season. But he’ll sit, per NCAA rules. That’s what the folks at MSU are expecting, too. After all, what would be his case if he appealed to play immediately? He’s a Wisconsin kid, who’s leaving the state of Wisconsin and could have transferred to the University of Wisconsin, with his older brother, who’s instead transferring to Virginia. In other words, the getting-close-to-family card is out.

Defensively, though, this transfer year as a practice and scout team player at MSU could serve him well. Marquette’s late-season collapse had a lot to do with defense. I watched the Golden Eagles several times down the stretch. It was like watching Iowa defensively. Hauser was part of that. At MSU, he’ll live for a year in a system where your value is measured a great deal by your defense, and being a 4-man at MSU means being in the right place in Tom Izzo’s elbow-block-help gap defense. Kenny Goins turned into the model of what MSU wants out of the position — being able to stretch defenses offensively but also covering ground and covering up mistakes defensively. Hauser, based on what I saw at Marquette, isn’t that kind of player right now. 

Still, offensively, he would have been a perfect replacement for Goins. A year from now, however, he’ll be a more needed addition. Think about the 2020-21 MSU basketball roster: Cassius Winston, Joshua Langford and Kyle Ahrens will be gone. Perhaps Aaron Henry, too, if he has a good year. Xavier Tillman, I believe, is a pro. He’s likely a four-year guy, but the NBA is going to take that fella whenever he’s ready, if he keeps progressing at the rate he has thus far. So, after next year, MSU will have a somewhat unproven backcourt, with Foster Loyer, Rocket Watts and incoming freshman Jalen Terry, with Gabe Brown on the wing, along with Malik Hall and, inside, Thomas Kithier, Marcus Bingham Jr. and Julius Marble. That group, on its own, is intriguing and might be fine. But Hauser provides proven scoring punch and shooting. 

The player perhaps most impacted by Hauser’s arrival is Bingham. But if Bingham is worried about Hauser, then he doesn’t get who he is. He’s a boom-or-bust player, in my opinion, someone who needs to add strength to have a major impact. If he does, he’s a one-and-done guy, whenever it happens. He’s 6-11, with a 7-4 wingspan, and can shoot. He’s only competing with himself for playing time.

The addition of Hauser means the end of any slim possibility that Nick Ward could return. There’s no scholarship open. If MSU was going to add a sit-out transfer, I thought it might be better served to add a guard. But Hauser is a serious talent. And he might have three years to give MSU. He’ll have at least two and then MSU can apply for his redshirt year back — he enrolled early at Marquette coming off ankle surgery. 

Hauser does little to nothing for MSU’s 2019-20 national title chances. The Spartans are going to be preseason ranked No. 1 and still would love for Bingham to emerge in that power forward spot. What Hauser does is make MSU’s team the following year more potent and formidable — and helps the odds that 2020-21 could be another of Izzo’s teams that makes an unexpected run deep into March. 

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Should MSU fear Michigan’s hiring of Juwan Howard as its basketball coach?  — Tom, from Bath Township 

No. MSU’s program under Tom Izzo is well beyond fear. When MSU’s program is no longer under Izzo, then fear can be a thing again. That said, this could get interesting. Check that, it will get interesting. Both from Michigan’s perspective with how this all unfolds — Juwan Howard’s coaching acumen, his recruiting, the Fab Five’s reintegration with the program, etc. — and the rivalry with MSU, which Michigan owned last time Howard was with the program. Times are very different.

The recruiting battles could become more frequent than they were during the John Beilein era, depending on Howard’s staff and recruiting priorities. But it’s ludicrous to think that Izzo, after 22 straight NCAA tournaments, eight Final fours and eight Big Ten championships, should fear a first-time head coach just because he was part of cultural revolution in college basketball more than 25 years ago. If Izzo, Dwayne Stephens, Dane Fife, Mike Garland and Co. can keep it rolling through the best of the era of Beilein — a seasoned and talented head coach — they’ll be fine even if Howard plucks away an in-state recruit here and there they might have not lost otherwise.

I think Howard could be really good at Michigan. I don’t think that’ll prevent MSU, under Izzo, from being great. 

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MSU football added a transfer, too. What are your thoughts on this kid?  — Gabe again

Jayden Reed, from Western Michigan, he’s a good get. He’s a guy who produced immediately at WMU and showed a knack for returning kicks, and he’ll have three years left after sitting out this season. What’s interesting is that WMU has produced more big-time receivers in the last 15 years than MSU has and, at that position — a diva position — you can get to the NFL just as easily from the Mid-American Conference as you can from the Big Ten. It took until Aaron Burbridge’s senior year at MSU for me to cover one wideout at MSU as good as any of the top three guys I covered at WMU at their peak (Greg Jennings, Jamarko Simmons and Jordan White). And the NFL’s list of productive wideouts from the MAC is long and recent. 

I saw Reed play a couple times during his 56-catch, 797-yard freshman season. He’s got a chance to be a great college football player. He’s not big — 6-foot, 170 pounds, but he has good wiggle, nice hands, decent speed and a knack for the ball. What you can’t get in the MAC is the Big Ten game-day environment and the chance to play on the biggest stages college football offers. That’s worth something.

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Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.