Max Abmas says Texas’ response to adversity last year drove him to the 40 Acres
What happens when the Texas basketball team that made a run to the Elite Eight loses two of its best shooters to the NBA? It goes out and finds perhaps an even better scorer to help bolster a repeat run and increase its chances of winning the daunting Big 12 Conference in its final campaign in the league.
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The Longhorns said goodbye to Marcus Carr (Phoenix Suns) and Jabari Rice (San Antonio Spurs) after the duo’s final year on the 40 Acres ended one 10-minute stretch away from the Final Four.
Into the breach steps graduate transfer Max Abmas (ACE-mus), who helped Oral Roberts University reach the Sweet 16 in 2021, the year he was the nation’s leading scorer at 24.5 points per game. Abmas was ninth in the country in scoring last season, averaging 21.9 points per game, and shot 37.3 percent from beyond the arc.
He comes to Texas as a known commodity as a scorer, and he will be needed to fill the void left by Carr, Rice and Timmy Allen.
Abmas, who goes at 6-foot and 175 pounds and hails from Rockwall, was the Summit League Player of the Year in both 2021 and 2023. He could have played for a bevy of Power 5 schools in this, his final season of eligibility, but said last week that he came to Texas for a handful of reasons.
“First off, just being a Texas kid and coming back playing for the home state, that was big for me,” Abmas said. “Then there’s really just the culture around here, a winning culture, that’s something that I wanted to be a part of in my last year playing college basketball, being in a position I feel comfortable with, and the depth on the roster and everything.”
Abmas can help take Texas to the next level. How much did that factor into his decision to play for the Longhorns?
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“It’s just the expectation to win here,” he said.
With Texas, Abmas won’t have to shoulder the entire scoring load, as junior Tyrese Hunter, sophomore Dillon Mitchell, and senior Dylan Disu are proven scorers.
“I’m just playing whatever role I need to play for us to win games – that’s it, that’s my No. 1 goal is to win games,” Abmas said. “I know there’s a lot of other really good players around here that have made a name for themselves in college basketball and so I’m just here to do whatever it takes to win. There’s no pressure on me.”
“I’ve kind of got the reputation of being a scorer over the last few years. If that’s what we need to win, I’m gonna go out there and do it.”
Abmas explained that the adversity that the Longhorns went through in 2022-23 – namely a midseason coaching change and a handful of key injuries to pivotal players – actually drew him to be a part of what coach Rodney Terry and his staff and players are building in Austin.
“If you kind of look at just the things that they went through last year, a lot of adversity and I mean, just the way they responded to it, they never made any excuses or anything,” Abmas said. “I think that’s a big thing – being really resilient. And then just talking with Coach Terry, and what he saw in me and the kind of the vision he had for me coming in was something that I wanted to do.”
