Texas guard Tyrese Hunter ruled out vs. UT Arlington due to illness

The Texas basketball team will be a man short in their game against UT Arlington on New Year’s season Day as junior guard Tyrese Hunter is out with an illness.

College hoops insider Jon Rothstein was first to report that news and shared it to Twitter, writing:

“Texas’ Tyrese Hunter (illness) is OUT for today’s game against UT Arlington, per release. Averages 12.7 PPG and 4.5 APG.”

Hunter started in every game he’s played in this season for Texas and has also started in every single game he’s ever participated in at the college level. That means 12 this season, 38 last year and 35 of them in 2021-22.

Of course, that first season occurred in Ames, Iowa, when Hunter was a true freshman and a member of head coach TJ Otzelberger’s first team at Iowa State. He would obviously transfer after that year, and Cyclone fans certainly saw their feelings change immediately about him after that, but along with Otzelberger, he did help change the trajectory at ISU.

The 2021 Iowa State finished just 2-22 and didn’t win a game after New Year’s that season to finish winless in the Big 12. Just a few months later, Otzelberger had them off a great winning streak to begin the next season and Hunter was a huge reason why.

At Texas, he’s not been a superstar, but No. 12 remains a high quality point guard and two-way player who still offers upside as a potential team leader down the road, perhaps even next season. Before any of those aspirations can be realized, though, Hunter’s got to rest up and get well soon.

Meanwhile, UT Alrington comes into the matchup hot off two straight losses to other in-state rivals, North Texas and Texas Tech. They’ll want to avoid a third straight loss to a Texas team, surely.

Their roster actually shows a pretty balanced group with four players all averaging between 7-8 points per game. Plus, their leading scorer, Phillip Russell just got back on the court two weeks ago and is averaging north of 17 points per contest.

The Mavericks are just 6-6 and 1-1 in WAC play thus far in the very first year of head coach KT Turner’s tenure his first season ever as a Div. I head coach after leaving the staff of John Calipari at Kentucky the year prior. Now that his lead scorer is back, perhaps UTA is packing more of a punch than Texas is expecting.