Rodney Terry shares message to Tyrese Hunter about impacting games

Coming off of a game against Iowa State in which he was held scoreless, Texas guard Tyrese Hunter found his rhythm again Saturday. Not only did Hunter finish with 19 points (8-12 FG), but he was also critical in finding his teammates for open looks to record seven assists in a 94-58 blowout of West Virginia.

The Longhorns held the Mountaineers to just 38.2% shooting and Hunter was a big part of the defensive effort with a pair of steals. Speaking postgame, Texas coach Rodney Terry explained how he encouraged Hunter to come out strong defensively, which in turn led to offensive opportunities.

“The thing we ask Tyrese to do every night is we ask him to come in and play with incredible energy on defense,” Terry said. “Try to be a great defender and get lost playing really hard on defense. It needs to be in his DNA and his make up. The times he’s come out and played that way on defense, he’s had great offensive nights. He’s played well and offense has come easy to him.”

Tyrese Hunter is in his second season at Texas after spending his freshman year playing at Iowa State. He is averaging 11.3 points along with a team-high 4.5 assists per game, but Terry has been pushing him to improve his defense.

The coach even called in some help to get the message across to him. Daniel Gibson played for the Longhorns from 2004-06 when Terry was an assistant coach under Rick Barnes. He later went on to enjoy a seven-year career in the NBA with the Cleveland Cavaliers, where he was a teammate of LeBron James.

Terry saw a lot of similarities between Gibson when he played for Texas and Hunter, setting the two up to talk so the former Longhorns could offer his advice.

“We lean on a lot of our former players, to be honest, too,” Terry said. “He and I had a good conversation the other day. I said, ‘man, we brought in a guy years ago and he had a pretty good NBA career, Daniel Gibson.’ Daniel Gibson was a really good player for us here, man. But Daniel in high school could score 70 points a game. Wasn’t known as defender, but he came here and really bought into being an elite defender by the time he left. Rick (Barnes), I mean we really coached him hard on defense. We knew he could really shoot the basketball, but his whole make up was about being a great defender.

“Got a chance to connect those guys have those guys visit a little bit, too. D-Gib is working with the Cavs a little bit too as a scout. But just having some of our former players talk and engage with our current players. TJ (Ford) does it all the time as well in terms of just kind of reinforcing the things that we talk about to our guys and really who they need to be as well as moving forward in their future.”

It seems that, with the help of Gibson, the message got through to Hunter. Texas will need him to continue his strong play throughout the rest of the season as they fight to climb up the Big 12 standings.

The Longhorns have a big matchup coming up next as they take on No. 3 Houston at noon CT on Saturday on the road.