Texas Basketball: 3 x-factors that will make or break the 2023 postseason

Tyrese Hunter needs to find the postseason form he had at Iowa State in 2022

The conversation continues to be had as to whether Texas can see the reigning Big 12 Newcomer of the Year and sophomore guard Tyrese Hunter break out of his offensive slump in Big 12 play.

Among the nine core rotation players for the Longhorns this season, Hunter ranks dead last on the team in offensive box plus/minus, offensive win shares, and offensive rating. He’s clearly the weak link in the starting five as his offensive game has fallen off a cliff in the last few months.

The weird part of this conversation concerning Hunter’s game is that his box score stats don’t look all that different than last season. So far this season, Hunter is only averaging around one fewer point per game while shooting around one percentage point less from the field than he did last year.

Hunter has also actually improved his overall shooting efficiency, as his true shooting percentage has risen by around one percentage point year-over-year. That has a lot to do with his massive improvement in shooting from the charity stripe and marginal progression shooting from beyond the arc.

He had many of the same struggles, especially on the offensive end of the floor during the 2021-22 regular season that he’s had in Big 12 play this year. Hunter was one of the streakiest shooters among all Big 12 guards last season and he was a pretty inefficient scorer throughout.

But there was some switch that flipped for Hunter in the NCAA Tournament last year. After averaging around 10 points per game on 37 percent shooting from the field and around 26 percent from beyond the arc during the 2021-22 regular season, Hunter exploded in three contests for Iowa State in the Big Dance.

He averaged north of 13 points per game while shooting an insane 44.4 percent from deep in the NCAA Tournament last year. And Hunter reportedly became just the second player in NCAA Tournament history, along with superstar Warriors guard Stephen Curry, to register at least seven three-pointers in a single game.

If that same switch can flip for Hunter in the NCAA Tournament this year, that would obviously be a massive boost to Texas’ backcourt unit. It would also further solidify Texas as a legit Elite Eight or Final Four threat this year.

Another potential encouraging sign in terms of the trajectory of Hunter’s two-way production down the stretch this season is that he’s shown more defensive effort and concentration in some recent big wins in Big 12 play. Hunter registered a whopping six steals in Texas’ wins over Oklahoma and Baylor at home in the last couple of weeks.

He also put up the best defensive rating in Texas’ win over Kansas State on the road on Feb. 4.

If Hunter can continue to show up on the defensive end of the floor, Texas should be able to get enough out of him that he could contribute in a positive manner to the backcourt unit on a consistent basis once again. And then, the hope has to be that Hunter can become a big-game player once again once the NCAA Tournament rolls around.