The hype train, as it sometimes does, left the station well before Sam Hauser had ever stepped on the floor to play in an actual game for Virginia. And instead of being the surefire All-ACC candidate that many expected, it took the Marquette transfer some time to settle into things.
But there’s no doubt that the 6-foot-8, 218-pound senior forward from Stevens Point (WI) has certainly come on with a vengeance.
In the five ACC games in which Hauser has appeared, he’s averaging 15 points and 9.6 rebounds as the Wahoos sit alone atop the league standings.
Much of what has happened for the 13th-ranked Cavaliers in recent weeks can be attributed to the team’s response to a 98-75 blowout loss to No. 1 Gonzaga.
And to Hauser, that game certainly has plenty to do with where UVa is now.
“We learned from that loss,” he said after the Hoos dismantled Clemson 85-50 on Saturday night in Littlejohn Coliseum. “I think when you lose a game, you learn. You don’t really take it as a loss necessarily. You learn from it and grow from it. And I think we’ve grown. We’ve taken some really good strides since that game and it’s been showing. We’re undefeated in the conference right now and we’ve got to just keep with it in practice, stick to the grind, and hopefully we can keep winning.”
Sticking to the grind may be a cliche but it’s one that Hauser can’t seem to shake. As such, it appears to be one he believes in.
“I’ve been in a little bit of a slump from behind the arc but I trust my mechanics, I trust my technique,” he said after going 4-for-5 from deep. “I just keep working every day. I know eventually they’re going to start falling and hopefully this is a trend now, that they start falling a little more. But stick to the grind and just keep shooting.”
That victory over Clemson, which at the time had the nation’s best defense, was a statement. And it was one that Hauser and his teammates felt good about, at least to a point.
“We showed a lot tonight,” he said. “Obviously, we continue to grow and practice hard, take the good things from tonight but also take the things we can learn from. Defensive end, we’ve got to stick to it. Obviously this program is built on defense. So, we showed that tonight and that’s kind of why we ended up on top.”
The victory not only included a much improved effort on defense—where Clemson was limited to 40.4 percent shooting from the floor and 21.7 percent from long range—but it showed UVa’s offense at its best. At one point in the second half, the Wahoos made their first nine 3-pointers in a row on the way to a 10-for-14 half.
“Being a part of any type of run like that is very fun,” he said. “When things are going your way like that, it’s very contagious. Guys coming off the bench, even guys on the floor at the time, once they saw guys making shots I think it gave them more confidence to shoot and take good shots. I think overall it was just a great offensive performance by us.
“You take some from it but you’ve just got to just stick to the grind,” Hauser added. “You don’t look past this, because there’s things we did well in this game and also things we didn’t do as well in this game and learn from it and make strides. We’re going to keep working in practice and stick to the grind.”
Asked after the game about his perception of the program before transferring, he said he knows nationally many people point to Virginia’s pace but that doesn’t tell the whole story.
“I don’t think that really matters if we’re scoring on a lot of our possessions and getting quality looks,” he explained. “This year we have a lot of guys that are very versatile, can score in multiple ways. In this game, that really showed. We had a lot of shooting but we can’t get too 3 happy because they’re not always going to fall like tonight. But overall, it was a great offensive performance.”
That versatility, while not always as visible, has been on full display of late and especially in the last two games as the Cavaliers put up 80 in back to back outings for the first in the Bennett era.
“I think because of our depth there’s a lot of competition in practice,” Hauser said. “Guys are really going at each other, so you really have to earn your time on the floor. Obviously, taking a hard punch to the face from Gonzaga, it’s tough to get up from that. But you learn, you live, you move on. And I think we’ve taken some great strides.
“It’s just fun,” he said of the team coming together. “We pride ourselves on sharing the ball, getting a great shot, and I think guys were looking for each other and making the extra pass. Shots were really falling tonight. But, just got to keep working.”
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