Louisville Transfer Target Tyrese Hunter Commits to Texas
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Since returning to his alma mater to become their head coach, Kenny Payne has certainly injected some juice into the Louisville men's basketball program out on the recruiting trail. The Cardinals have been inserting themselves into the mix for plenty of high profile transfers, as well as several blue chip prospects in the Class of 2023.
But you can't win every recruiting battle, even at a position of utmost need, and Louisville found that out again on Friday. Tyrese Hunter, a former Iowa State guard who was one of the top freshmen in the nation this past season before entering the transfer portal, announced Friday that he has committed to Texas.
Hunter entered the portal back in mid-April, and Louisville immediately inserted themselves into the mix, being named in his top six roughly a week after entering the portal. Kansas and Louisville were the perceived frontrunners, with Hunter visiting the former and planning to visit the latter, until he opted to visit the Longhorns instead of the Cardinals.
Coincidentally, this is also the second year in a row that Louisville has lost out on a transfer portal guard to Texas. Last season, former Minnesota guard Marcus Carr also picked the Cards over the Longhorns in a head-to-head recruiting battle between Chris Mack and Chris Beard.
This is undoubtedly a big loss for Louisville. The amount of quality guards still available for the Cardinals to land is getting dangerously low, and Payne has already lost out on recruitments for a few guard targets in this cycle, such as Skyy Clark and Sean McNeil.
While guys like Mike James, Kamari Lands and Devin Ree can take reps at the two guard spot, as of right now, El Ellis remains the only true scholarship guard on the roster. There are still some quality guards left in the transfer portal, such as Malachi Smith, Isiaih Mosley and Teddy Allen, but the Cards absolutely need to land another backcourt piece to compliment Ellis.
Hunter was one of the biggest contributors to the Cyclones' impressive turnaround, going from 2-22 the year before to 22-13 with a Sweet 16 appearance. Starting all 35 games for Iowa State, the 6-foot, 178-pound point guard averaged 11.0 points, 4.9 assists and 3.5 rebounds per game. While he also shot 39.1 percent from the field and 27.4 percent on three point attempts, he was still named the Big 12 Freshman of the Year.
(Photo of Tyrese Hunter: Benny Sieu - USA TODAY Sports)
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