Ben Hunt (born 6 June 1978) is an Australian former professional basketball player. He began his basketball career in the SEABL with the Bendigo Braves before playing four years of

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

in the United States. He then had a two-year stint in the National Basketball League (NBL) with the

Perth Wildcats The Perth Wildcats are an Australian professional basketball team based in Perth, Western Australia. The Wildcats compete in the National Basketball League (Australia), National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at Perth Arena, ...

Early life and career

Hunt was born in

Bendigo Bendigo ( ) is an Australian city in north-central Victoria. The city is located in the Bendigo Valley near the geographical centre of the state and approximately north-west of Melbourne, the state capital. As of 2022, Bendigo has a popula ...

, Victoria, and attended Bendigo Senior Secondary College. He made his debut for the Bendigo Braves in the SEABL in 1994. He played every year for the Braves until 2001. He earned All-SEABL South Conference Team honours in 2000 and 2001, and was named the SEABL South Conference Youth Player of the Year in 2000.

College career

Between 2001 and 2003, Hunt played Division I college basketball in the United States for the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks. In 57 games over two seasons, he averaged 6.8 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game. Hunt returned to Australia in 2003 and played a ninth season for the Braves. In 2004, he left the Braves and played the SEABL season with the

Ballarat Miners Ballarat Miners is a NBL1 South club based in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. The club fields a team in both the Men's and Women's NBL1 South. The club is a division of Ballarat Basketball Association, the major administrative basketball organisat ...

. Hunt returned to the United States in 2004 to play his final two college seasons at

Texas Wesleyan University Texas Wesleyan University is a private Methodist university in Fort Worth, Texas. It was founded in 1890 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The main campus is located in the Polytechnic Heights neighborhood of Fort Worth. Its mascot is ...

of the

Red River Athletic Conference The Red River Athletic Conference is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). The conference's 14 member institutions are located in Texas, Louisiana, and New Mexico. History ...

(RRAC) in the

National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) established in 1940, is a college athletics association for higher education, colleges and universities in North America. Most colleges and universities in the NAIA offer athletic schola ...

(NAIA). With the Rams, Hunt earned first-team All-RRAC in both 2004–05 and 2005–06, to go with winning Co-Player of the Year in 2005–06. He was also second-team All-American, All-NAIA National Tournament and Texas Wesleyan Athlete of the Year in 2005–06. He led the Rams to the 2006 NAIA Division 1 national championship, scoring a career-high 34 points and hitting the game winning shot in the title game.

Professional career

In March 2006, Hunt had an unsuccessful trial with the

Dallas Mavericks The Dallas Mavericks (often referred to as the Mavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Dallas. The Mavericks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southwest Division (NBA), Southwest Divisi ...

of the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

. He received another opportunity with the Mavericks in July 2006 when he joined the team for the

NBA Summer League The NBA Summer League, also known as the Las Vegas Summer League, is an off-season basketball competition organized by the National Basketball Association (NBA). NBA teams come together to try out different summer rosters instead of their regula ...

. Following his Summer League stint, Hunt returned to Australia and joined the

for the 2006–07 NBL season. In his rookie season, he averaged 3.6 points in 30 games. He remained in Perth during the 2007 off-season and played for the Willetton Tigers in the

State Basketball League NBL1 West, formerly the State Basketball League (SBL), is a semi-professional basketball league in Western Australia, comprising both a men's and women's competition. In 2020, Basketball Western Australia partnered with the National Basketball L ...

(SBL), where he earned SBL All Star Second Team honours. With the Wildcats in 2007–08, he averaged 4.3 points in 31 games. A

point guard The point guard (PG), also called the one or the point, is one of the Basketball positions, five positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position and is usually the shortest player ...

for his entire career, Hunt took on the challenge of

shooting guard The shooting guard (SG), also known as the two, two guard or off guard,Shooting guards are 6'3"–6'7"BBC Sports academy URL last accessed 2006-09-09. is one of the five traditional basketball positions, positions in a regulation basketball game ...

during his second season with the Wildcats. Following the NBL season, he re-joined the Willetton Tigers for the SBL season, where he earned SBL All Star Third Team honours.

National team career

In 2005, Hunt played for the Australian University National Team at the

Summer Universiade The FISU World University Games, formerly the Universiade, is an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The former name is a portmanteau of the words "Universi ...

İzmir İzmir is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara. It is on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, and is the capital of İzmir Province. In 2024, the city of İzmir had ...

, Turkey. He scored a game-high 28 points in a quarter-final loss to the United States.

Personal life

Hunt is the son of Peter and Ricki, and he has an older brother, Josh. Hunt is married to wife Erin.

References

External links

NBL player profilePerth Wildcats profile (2007)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunt, Ben 1978 births Living people Australian men's basketball players Perth Wildcats players Sportspeople from Bendigo Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks basketball players Texas Wesleyan Rams men's basketball players Sportsmen from Victoria (state)