Rodney Terry speaks about Max Abmas nearing 3,000 career points

Max Abmas transferred to Texas as the active NCAA D1 scoring leader with 2,561 career points. Now, he’s about to surpass 3,000.

The fifth year transfer from Oral Roberts heads into Saturday’s matchup against No. 3 Houston with 2,987 total points, which means he has to score 13 points to pass the rare career milestone.

“We know exactly what we’re going to get from him every night,” Terry said ahead of Saturday’s game. “He plays to win and even with all of the individual stats and things of that nature, he’s not one of those stat chasers. He’s one of those guys that if he needs to score, he’s going to score for the team and if you need him to distribute the basketball, he’s gonna distribute for the team.

“I think when it’s all said and done, when the dust settles, the season’s complete, I think he’s going to be one of those guys that you have to put in a special category in terms of being a special player at the collegiate level. That’s an incredible, incredible college career, but he would trade it for a Final Four tomorrow.”

Abmas is averaging 17.7 points per game this season, tops on the Longhorns’ squad this season and third in the Big 12 Conference behind the Kansas duo of Kevin McCullar and Hunter Dickinson.

The first-year Longhorn recently passed Oscar Robertson for 12th place on the all-time list, and has a legitimate shot at cracking the top 10 by the time Texas’ season is over. It’s unlikely he’ll be able to break into the top five all-time with only seven games and the postseason to go for Texas on the year.

Whether Abmas is willing to come back for another season remains to be seen — but he does have eligibility and is 680 points away from surpassing that mark. It’s not impossible, especially if Texas can make a run next season during the SEC and NCAA Tournaments.

Still, that decision is one Abmas will have to make for himself once the offseason rolls around. All of that is looking too far ahead, however, and Abmas is focused on picking up a win over No. 3 Houston at home — it would just be a plus if he can score those 13 points needed to be one of 12 players to ever surpass 3k points in college basketball history.

Tip off is scheduled for 1 p.m. ET live on CBS.