Tyrese Hunter has his injury situation behind him, looks for more from Longhorns this season

The Texas basketball team’s appearance in the Elite Eight was one of the surprises of the 2022-23 season after a mid-season coaching change and the adversity of several key players fighting through injuries.

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Tyrese Hunter was one of those key players, battling through a series of continuing muscle spasms and cramps that has been determined to be the result a condition and not poor hydration. There were times when Hunter’s muscles would just lock up and it took everything he could do just to move, much less practice and play basketball.

“I’m gonna say my worst game was at West Virginia,” Hunter said Thursday in the teams’ initial media availability for the upcoming season. “I mean, we didn’t get to leave the arena until two hours after the game because my body was just locked up. I couldn’t move. It was bad. It was bad. It was bad.”

Hunter and the team have the situation under control now with a treatment plan that he said was “more simple than what we thought.”

“We were throwing a lot of stuff out it was asking a lot of pro teams, and they never heard anything like this,” Hunter explained. “One was telling they never worked on nothing like this before. We did everything.  Hydration – I was drinking gallons of water. I was gaining about eight pounds a game. It was crazy.”

Even with the situation, Hunter averaged 30 minutes of court time while playing and starting in all 38 games for the Longhorns in their 29-9 campaign. He scored 10.3 points per game, good enough for fourth on the team, and canned 56 three-pointers.

Texas enters its final season in the Big 12 Conference as one of the favorites to win the league title. Hunter said this year’s team has put last year behind it.

“We are focused on the schedule that we got ahead of us right now,” he said. “We’ve got to be consistent in every day of practice and that’s gonna carry over to the games.”

Asked who has improved over the offseason, Hunter picked up the mantle.

“I will say myself, honestly, but teamwise, I think everybody has taken another job and made a lot of improvement,” Hunter said. “I’m working on being more explosive this year, knocking down threes more consistently, just being a problem in transition and also on the defense – I just want to be a menace on that side as well.”

Hunter said he’s enjoying being the guy who’s been in Austin and is used to things as opposed to the 2022-23 season when he spent a large part of the year getting acclimated to playing with point guard Marcus Carr and with the way the coaching staff operates.

“I can’t lie – it feels good,” Hunter said. “You know, it’s just one of those things. I’ve been here and I know what to expect. I don’t have to look over my shoulder as much. I can just teach guys the ways that we get around through the whole program, the culture and how things go.”

Neither Hunter nor transfer guard Max Abmas, both who are listed on the Longhorns’ roster at 6-foot and 175 pounds, are going to wow the opposition with their size. Hunter believes the two can still play complementary basketball when on the floor together.

“I think it’s just having heart,” Hunter said. “Honestly they pick on us about our size in practice all the time, but we are the top two players every practice, just killing it. I think it’s just gonna come down to having a heart, that dog, and who wants it more.

“I’m learning from Max. He’s one of those guys that it’s hard to just get by him with one move. When he’s guarding me I can’t just get by him with a lot of moves. He’s gonna stay with you the whole time, just kind of being physical. So I’m learning stuff from him and he’s learned stuff for me.”

Texas coach Rodney Terry has said that when Hunter gets down and guards he might be the best on-ball defender in the country. Hunter feels like he can be that kind of guy every game.

“What kind of stopped me last year was just the injuries and stuff I was going through,” Hunter said. “I mean, I couldn’t even play a full game; I couldn’t play for the first half. But you know, I worked to fight through it and it kind of made me look a little weak.

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Hunter would continue, “I know what to expect now. I know (when) my game reaches full potential. I got the opportunity to learn this and be consistent. I put the work in and just keep striving.”