Rodney Terry considers pressure Max Abmas was under to reach 3,000 points

Texas guard Max Abmas surpassed a rare mark on Saturday in a game against Kansas State, eclipsing the 3,000-point mark for his career.

Abmas has amassed that total at two schools, spending four years at Oral Roberts prior to transferring to Texas this season. He left Oral Roberts with 2,562 career points, only 438 away from becoming the 12th player in NCAA history to reach 3,000 career points.

But despite the massive mark creeping up in recent weeks, coach Rodney Terry hasn’t seen any change in Abmas’ approach.

“I don’t think he’s given one thought to 3,000 points or reaching 3,000 points,” Terry said. “I think his biggest objective tonight going into this game was be a great floor general, be a great teammate, compete as hard as he could possibly compete.”

Still, it’s easy to wonder if the pressure of reaching 3,000 points wasn’t starting to wear on Max Abmas a little bit. After scoring in double-figures in each of the first 24 games this season, Abmas was held to single-digits in the last two games.

Even as he broke the mark against Kansas State, Abmas did so with just eight points in the contest, his second-lowest output of the season (behind only the previous game’s seven points).

Even so, Terry didn’t seem to think anything was off about his star. He just views it as Abmas understanding the bigger picture.

“Knowing what we’re playing for every single game, and I think he plays that way all the time,” Terry said. “He plays to win and everything else just kind of takes care of itself in that regard.”

Terry is averaging 16.9 points per game, and if he maintains that average the rest of the way going forward he’ll have a chance to further vault himself up in the record books.

Max Abmas has the opportunity to break into the top 10 quite soon, with Keydren Clark currently sitting there with 3,058 points. Lionel Simmons has the No. 5 spot at 3,217 points, maybe a lofty goal for the Texas guard to reach — potentially depending on how many games the Longhorns play in the Big 12 Tournament and NCAA Tournament.

In any case, Terry has been pleased with his guard’s mature approach to the whole thing.

Abmas and Texas will be back in action on Saturday with a game at No. 9 Kansas, a big potential resume-booster. That game will tip off at 6 p.m. ET on ESPN.

On3’s Griffin McVeigh also contributed to this report.