A University of Texas senior point guard is The Dallas Express‘ first “Athlete of the Week” after becoming the 12th player in the history of college basketball to score 3,000 career points in the Longhorns’ road win over Kansas State.
While Max Abmas, a transfer from Oral Roberts and a Dallas Jesuit alum, scored just eight points in the contest, he passed all-time great Basketball Hall-of-Famer Oscar Robertson on the NCAA’s all-time scoring list, joining the likes of “Pistol” Pete Maravich, Freeman Williams, Doug McDermott, and a few others in college basketball lore.
“I think it’s something I’ll appreciate more when I finish playing,” Abmas told the media during a postgame press conference. “I’m super grateful for it, but the important thing was the team win tonight — a game that we needed to protect the home court. We’ll build off this and continue to get better.”
Abmas was not heavily recruited despite scoring over 1,000 points during his high school career, earning UIL District 9-6A Co-MVP honors and being named an All-Region player as a senior.
He chose Oral Roberts over schools like Air Force, Army, and Marist and quickly showed other teams what they had missed. He immediately became a star, setting all sorts of program records and leading the country in scoring as a sophomore during a 2020-2021 season that saw the Golden Eagles reach the Sweet 16 as a 15-seed in the NCAA tournament.
He led the team back to the NCAA Tournament last season but lost to Duke in the first round.
After four years with Oral Roberts, Abmas got his chance to join a team in a major conference, deciding to transfer to Texas over Kansas State, where he has become the Longhorns’ second-leading scorer at 16.9 points per game.
While the team has had its ups and downs, and its postseason fate is still uncertain, Abmas has once again proven he can handle the challenge and remain a consistent player for his team. Now, he’s one of college basketball’s greatest scorers — not bad for someone who was once overlooked by the very opponents he is now playing.
