One of the big stories of the Maui Invitational thus far has been the performance of Memphis guard Tyrese Hunter. Hunter is making a huge impact in his first season with the Tigers and has carried them to a spot in the tournament championship game.
Hunter played a major part in Memphis’ shocking quarterfinal upset of No. 2 UConn on Monday. The senior point guard played 40 minutes and scored a very efficient 26 points, shooting 8-for-13 and 7-for-10 from 3-point range. Despite blowing a late lead, Memphis was able to pull out a huge upset to advance to the semifinals.
Hunter had another stellar day on Tuesday in a 71-63 win over Michigan State. He scored 23 points on 7-for-15 shooting and 5-for-10 on 3-pointers to lead Penny Hardaway and Memphis to another win. As a result, Hunter is surely one of the favorites to win the tournament MVP if he can carry the team to one more win on Wednesday.
After Tuesday’s game, legendary Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo had very high praise for Hunter, according to Parth Upadhyaya of The Daily Memphian.
“You gotta give Hunter a lot of credit,” Izzo said, per Upadhyaya. “I mean, he made some shots that I don’t know if Penny made when he played. And I mean that.”
Any comparison to Penny Hardaway is a good one, and it speaks to the level of basketball that Hunter has been playing at this tournament. If he can keep that up, Memphis will have a good chance to knock off either No. 4 Auburn or No. 12 North Carolina in the title game on Wednesday.
Maui run shows this Memphis team can be different
Penny Hardaway has seemingly always had talented teams during his time as the head coach at Memphis, but they have failed to meet lofty expectations more often than now.
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However, this team looks like a different beast. Memphis has multiple bigs that they can go to over the course of the game in Dain Dainja and Moussa Cisse, and they both excel at different things.
However, the guards have made the difference for Memphis so far in this tournament. Hunter has been a superstar and PJ Haggerty has scored 38 points in the two wins so far. Senior Colby Rogers can also score it and has 29 points over the two games.
That type of scoring punch combined with the experience in the backcourt is what makes this Memphis team feel different as it gets its 2024-25 campaign underway. It is still very talented just like always, but the additions of guys like Hunter, Dainja and Cisse in the transfer portal gives it a stronger foundation than it has had in the past.
It remains to be seen whether Memphis will be able to take home the title this week at the Maui Invitational, but it has plenty to be excited about moving forward regardless of Wednesday’s result.