As the Texas Longhorns race against time to qualify for the NCAA Tournament, their fate rests mostly with a player who isn’t even a top-two option on offense.

They need guard Tyrese Hunter to be at his basketball best.

The former Big 12 freshman of the year at Iowa State has experienced an offensive roller coaster in his second season on campus and it hasn’t been the fun type where you can’t wait to get back on.

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While Texas' fortunes largely rest on the performances of leading scorers Dylan Disu and Max Abmas, Hunter is the barometer. When he plays well, the Horns can compete with any team, but his struggles have coincided with this team’s struggles, particularly on the offensive end.

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Hunter made only three of his 10 field-goal attempts in Monday’s had-to-have-it 62-56 home win over Kansas State, but his energy was a prime reason the Horns eked out a win on a night the rims at Moody Center went cold, given the endless amount of leather bricks we witnessed.

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Offensive frustrations aside, Hunter finished with a season-high seven rebounds and provided a spark on defense that was sorely needed for a team that may have been one more bad home loss away from the NIT.

Hunter is finding his role on the roster

Head coach Rodney Terry has always warned his players against allowing their struggles on offense to affect their effort on the other end, and while Hunter struggled — he missed one wide open 3-pointer down the stretch from the left corner where there wasn’t a defender in the area code — he played with tremendous intensity the whole night.

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“I was always taught that you can affect the game with more than just scoring,” Hunter said. “I’ve always carried that with me. That's my role with this team.”

Hunter played alongside some elite guards in Marcus Carr and Jabari Rice last season, which afforded him the luxury of picking his spots offensively while providing good energy on the defensive end, but with this team, he has to be much more consistent offensively if it's going to win enough games to make it to the NCAAs.

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While this team is predicated on defense, Hunter’s offense has been a real signifier of what has happened in the won-lost column. Texas is 12-3 when he scores in double figures. He scored 10 points or more in 10 of 12 nonconference games, including a great four-game stretch entering Big 12 play when he averaged 16.2 points on 58% shooting from the field.

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A tale of two seasons: conference vs. nonconference

Conference play has been tougher, not a shock since this is the best league in America. Hunter has reached double digits just five times in 13 games. He dished out seven assists in the loss to his old Cyclones team but was 0-for-8 in a 70-65 home loss. Last Saturday, the Horns hit bottom in an 82-61 dressing down at No. 3 Houston. Hunter scored seven points and committed a season-high five turnovers with just one assist.

Truth be told, it’s not just Hunter. The Horns just don’t always play well against pressure defense out front, but the head coach has been adamant about Hunter keeping his head up, especially on those nights when the points don’t come easily.

The 6-foot junior bounced back Monday with nine points, seven rebounds, two assists and a pair of steals and was all over the place, diving for loose balls, keeping plays alive with that elite athleticism and giving Texas that energy it needed to pull out a win on a night when offense wasn’t easy to come by.

“When he’s playing at an elite level defensively and has a really good mindset, when he’s really engaged and really involved, I think it really helps him offensively,” Terry said. “When you have that energy and activity, it spreads to other guys having to guard with that same type of energy and when he brings that, it brings a different element to the game, even if he’s not scoring. He’s giving us offense off our defense. Sometimes you get separation in this league when you get offense off your defense.”

Tyrese Hunter set the tone early

Hunter’s backcourt mate Max Abmas agrees. Abmas reached the 3,000-point career mark but has had his struggles offensively of late. That said, he, Hunter and newcomer Chendall Weaver — who took the business end of a second-half clothesline from K-State freshman Dai Dai Ames that evoked memories of Kurt Rambis and Kevin McHale from the 1984 NBA Finals — gave the much-needed relentlessness on the defensive end that helped bring that win home.

Hunter was the first to rush to the defense of his fallen teammate, whom he called “my brother.” His energy was infectious and instrumental in the Horns avoiding what would have been a critical hit to their postseason hopes.

“It’s big for us,” Abmas said. “(With) that defensive intensity and the defensive energy, he set the tone early tonight from the jump the way he was pressuring the ball and playing up full court. That trickled down to everybody.”

Texas (17-9, 6-7) was projected as a No. 8 seed in ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi's projections, placed in the Midwest Region with a first-round matchup with Virginia. There are five Big 12 games left, starting with Saturday's road challenge at No. 9 Kansas.

Good defense travels and the Horns will need plenty of it to win at Allen Fieldhouse for the first time since 2021. We know it all starts on offense with Disu and Abmas, but no one would have been interested in reading about the Two Musketeers. When Hunter is that No. 3 weapon, Texas is just better.

And for him, it has to start on the end that comes most naturally.

“I’ve got to be that person on defense, be the leader and get everybody going,” Hunter said. "I’ve got to embrace that, keep going and help us win.”

Simply put, if Hunter doesn’t show up over these next couple of weeks, the Horns won’t be dancing in March.

They need him.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas basketball needs Tyrese Hunter at his best to make NCAA tourney